"barrel stays"

[victor steinbok]

That would be a first...


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ... but one would suppose that the novel had been scrupulously copy-read.
>
>

On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      "barrel stays"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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