Error
Taking a cue from the prior entry, let's take a look at the kissing-cousin of the Mistake: an Error. Happily, its early Latin and is translated as "ramble" which is quite appropriate, given the amount of errors one expects to find the longer one rambles (this place is not immune!). Classically, and metaphorically, the word takes on a different tone as we progress towards today: a simple deviation from accuracy. This no doubt begs the question "what is accuracy?" which I haven't the space (mentally or physically) to type at the current moment. Besides, dealing in deviations is often more fun.
More interesting, still, is when a deviation gets so far away from its original that it takes on an accuracy all its own. In mathematical statistics, an error is not viewed as a "mistake" at all, it is simply the difference between what's been computed and the true, or theoretically correct, value. The degree of deviation between what was found and what was expected: Error. Worth noting --- this is entirely free from connotation (negative or otherwise), neither bad nor good, simply a varied gradation whose hue is a trifle discolored.
This must be why they are so readily embedded into our lifes with such ease, and constantly grow into assumed truths eventually with their perpetuation.
Example:
The Hudson River (not pictured above). Early European explorers thought it wide enough for passage and boat travel across the entire country. They were disappointed at this, oh, what shall we call it? No, it wasn't an error, it was just an assumption without foundation so it can't be categorized as an error (no computation had taken place). They did notice, however, that the water was salty, overly salty, all the way up to its headwater area near Albany --- almost 200 miles from the ocean. They were curious about this, oh, what shall we call it? A fact without explanation, but they inappropriately called the Hudson a River.
Of course, this is wrong. Rivers don't have salt water, and the explorers were not early enough (by several hundred thousand years) to have witnessed the shallow valley being carved away by the continental glacier, a southbound advancing ice-sheet. When the glacier melted, the rise of the sea level flooded the valleys with saltwater leaving a Fjord.
As famous as the thing is, the error entombed in it is pretty pathetic. Also in New York, Grand Central is a Terminal yet still is most commonly referred to as a Station without interjection or correction. These two errors, while they themselves carry no inherent harm, seem violent and detrimental to the greater logistical good of the people --- it is sad that we allow this problem to continue on infinitely through the ages when all it takes to clear it up is simply to ask one's self "do the trains pass through there, or do they terminate there?" or "don't rivers usually have fresh water?"
