20190213

Sheath or sheaf


I am really enjoying Bart van Es's prize winning book The cut out girl and have almost finished it. I was surprised, however, to find on page 209 what appears to be a mistake.
Half way down the page he begins anew paragraph

On the desk in my hotel room lies a second sheath of papers.

Surely that should be

On the desk in my hotel room lies a second sheaf of papers.

Professor Paul Brians of Washington State is with me on this. (If you take your knife out of its sheath (case) you can use it to cut a sheaf (bundle) of wheat to serve as a centerpiece.) It is apparently a common error and yet this is written by a Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and appears in a Penguin paperback.
Perhaps it is simply that the papers were in a sheath.

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