The case for genre-specific copy-editors:

[rivka]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies aside, in a Regency novel, the relatives of a recently deceased English peer should not generally be concerned about an entrail.

HTH.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Oh no they didn't!

[melebeth]

Nose, meet tea.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

It must be this cold, but I'm not getting it. Is it a typo? Or just inappropriate vernacular? And what's the book?

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I am not rivka and I don't know what book, but I suspect that in this case, "entrail" is a typo for "entail", which has something to do with inheritance laws.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

It's a complex way of ensuring that the property goes only to male heirs. As, for instance, if Fred has only daughters, the property goes to the closest male relative. Could be Fred's brother, could be Fred's brother's sons, and on and on in distance until it could be Fred's fourth cousin.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you both, I wasn't twigging the context.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Much like the copy-editor, indeed. Regency is a genre with a mind-bogglingly large specific technical vocabulary, most of it used to describe clothing. It's kind of unfair to bring a non-expert into it.

[puzzlement.livejournal.com]

Also of preventing the male heirs from selling the property. (In England, only the first and not the second generation of heir could be so restrained.)

In Pride & Prejudice this is why Mr Bennet can't sell any property to provide for his five daughters: he's the middle generation of the entail.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

SNERK!

[kate_nepveu]

You'd think that even without knowledge of the period, the context would make that clear.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess it depends how the peer died, doesn't it? There are situations in which one could be legitimately concerned about whether there was an entrail on the estate...

...okay, maybe not. I suspect that the copy-editor didn't know that "entail" could be a noun.

[kate_nepveu]

Surely only to the extent of instructing the staff to see that it is removed?

But no, you are undoubtedly correct.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's a hold over from Roman Britain, involving divination using the entrails of ancestors?

[carbonel]

Heh. My favorite along those lines, in slash fanfic, is typoing "prostate" as "prostrate." Oddly enough, it never seems to happen in the other direction.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

*splutter*

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Oh....dear.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

*giggle*