Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Today's amusing copyediting error

From page 314 of Fifty-to-One by Charles Ardai: In the midst of a gunfight aboard a ship, "[b]oth fell to the ground moaning."

To the deck? Sure. To the floor? Maybe? To the ground? No.

Interesting note: "Ground," in nautical terms, means "the bottom of a body of water." So, if these two fell to the "ground," they most likely were drowning. Moaning and drowning.

2 comments:

Kevin R. Tipple said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kevin R. Tipple said...

My rodent killer sized dictionary also adds that it can be the surface of the water.

Either way--they are moaning and all wet.

Kevin
(have typos--will comment)