What’s in a Word?

It seems that bad editing has been the nightmare of publishers for a long time…

From 2201 Fascinating Facts by David Louis –

“In the history of printing, several early English Bibles are famous not so much for their workmanship or their beauty as for their textual idiosyncrasies.  A few famous examples, much sought after by rare-Bible collectors, are:

The Breeches Bible (1560) – so named because it states that Adam and Eve ‘sewed fig tree leaves together and made themselves breeches.’

The Bug Bible (1551) – so named because of an incorrect translation of a line in the Ninety-first Psalm.  The line ‘Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night’ reads ‘Though shalt not be afraid of any buggies by night.’

The Treacle Bible (1568) – so named because it uses the word ‘treacle’ for ‘balm’ in the line ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’”

And the following gem, from the same source, is  for those who frown upon the mention of magic, witches, and the occult at this time of year.

“The Three Kings of the Nativity story were actually sorcerers.  They were magicians – priests of the Zoroastrian religion of Persia.  The word ‘magi’ ( as in the Three Magi) is the plural of ‘magus’, meaning ‘wizard’ in Old Persian.  It is from this root that the word ‘magic’ is derived.”