"barrel stays"

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 15, 2013, at 1:07 PM, Charles C Doyle wrote:

> 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.
>
Maybe just the natural confusion between staving off invasions, boredom, hunger, etc. with staying off the grass.  (Given what's happening to copy-editing, I fear that your supposition is wildly optimistic.)

LH

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