busillis (it) Phrase
Meaning:
baffling puzzle, thorny problem
Comment
John of Cornwall (ca. 1170) was once asked by a scribe what the word meant. It turns out that the original text said in diebus illis magnis plenae (in those days there were plenty of great things), which the scribe misread as indie busillis magnis plenae (in India there were plenty of large busillis). This mondegreen has since entered the literature; it occurs in Alessandro Manzoni's novel The Betrothed (1827), in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1880), and in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series.
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