“The Maytrees” by Annie Dillard (post 3): Who was responsible for misspelling an unusual word?

Following the accidental injury of their young son, Petie, the married Maytrees have just split, which reminds me of a similar marital breakup in Anne Tyler’s The Accidental Tourist (1985).

“His leaving condemned Petie to being spoiled. And stuck with [his wife, Lou’s] pauciloquoys [sic] (1, p. 70).

“Pauciloquoys” is a misspelling of “pauciloquy,” which means brevity of speech. Who is to blame for using and misspelling this unusual word?

I could blame the publisher’s editor and proofreader, but they probably thought that any author who was erudite enough to use such a word would certainly know how to spell it.

My guess is that the misspelled word was dictated to the author by an alternate personality she trusted, which is a creative, but not a foolproof, system.

1. Annie Dillard. The Maytrees. New York, Harper Perennial, 2008.