diff --git a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timedeltas.py b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timedeltas.py
index e515ba624d203..1586d0385732f 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timedeltas.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timedeltas.py
@@ -137,12 +137,12 @@ def test_construction(self):
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, lambda: Timedelta('3.1415'))
 
         # invalid construction
-        tm.assertRaisesRegexp(ValueError, "cannot construct a TimeDelta",
+        tm.assertRaisesRegexp(ValueError, "cannot construct a Timedelta",
                               lambda: Timedelta())
         tm.assertRaisesRegexp(ValueError, "unit abbreviation w/o a number",
                               lambda: Timedelta('foo'))
         tm.assertRaisesRegexp(ValueError,
-                              "cannot construct a TimeDelta from the passed "
+                              "cannot construct a Timedelta from the passed "
                               "arguments, allowed keywords are ",
                               lambda: Timedelta(day=10))
 
diff --git a/pandas/tslib.pyx b/pandas/tslib.pyx
index df6554fe1d5de..61c0f9c5a093b 100644
--- a/pandas/tslib.pyx
+++ b/pandas/tslib.pyx
@@ -2615,7 +2615,7 @@ class Timedelta(_Timedelta):
 
         if value is None:
             if not len(kwargs):
-                raise ValueError("cannot construct a TimeDelta without a value/unit or descriptive keywords (days,seconds....)")
+                raise ValueError("cannot construct a Timedelta without a value/unit or descriptive keywords (days,seconds....)")
 
             def _to_py_int_float(v):
                 if is_integer_object(v):
@@ -2630,7 +2630,7 @@ class Timedelta(_Timedelta):
                 nano = kwargs.pop('nanoseconds',0)
                 value = convert_to_timedelta64(timedelta(**kwargs),'ns',False) + nano
             except TypeError as e:
-                raise ValueError("cannot construct a TimeDelta from the passed arguments, allowed keywords are "
+                raise ValueError("cannot construct a Timedelta from the passed arguments, allowed keywords are "
                                  "[weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds]")
 
         if isinstance(value, Timedelta):