XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, alt.usage.english   
   From: mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk   
      
   Steve Hayes wrote:   
   > In the Puffin edition of "Prince Caspian" C.S. Lewis at one point   
   > uses the term "hair-brained".   
   >   
   > I always understood that the correct term was "hare-brained", and   
   > would have thought that a professor of English literature would know   
   > the difference.   
   >   
   > Is this found in all editions, ot was it just a misprint?   
      
   Google Books very surprisingly has 852 "hare-brained" and no fewer than   
   757 "hair-brained". I'm sure the capillary version is a mistake, though   
   clearly not always a typo. OED gives "hare-" as standard, but says "The   
   spelling /hair-brain/, suggesting another origin for the compound, is   
   later, though occasional before 1600."   
      
   I've often seen hares being apparently hare-brained, and am quite   
   confident that their behaviour is the origin.   
      
   Got to love the following:   
   "1566 T. STAPLETON Ret. Untr. Jewel IV. 109 The most outragious and   
   harebrayne stomaches of the Donatistes." Hare-brained stomachs! I can't   
   tell without context whether "stomach" is here stubbornness, "nerve", or   
   even anger.   
      
   --   
   Mike.   
      
      
      
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