"barrel stays"

[Charles C Doyle]

The following eggcorn (as I take it to be) comes from Dan Brown's recent novel _Inferno_ (NY: Doubleday, 2013), 116:

<< The pathway's name, La Cerchiata--literally 'circular' or 'hooped'--derived from its canopy of curved trees resembling barrel stays or _cerchi_. >>

In any case, he may have been thinking of barrel hoops, not a barrel staves.

Brown himself is a famously poor writer, but one would suppose that the novel had been scrupulously copy-read.

--Charlie

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