What I have learnt is that sometimes authors don't know the meaning of their own words. I'm thinking specifically of the late David Eddings; one of my favourite fantasy authors, but (and I've mentioned this before, for which apologies, but it fits the thread title) he infuriated me endlessly in his "Belgariad" series by referring to an ancient text which he called "The Rivan Codex", but when described, it turned out to be a
scroll. Just in case anyone doesn't know, a codex is a
book - it's what the word codex actually
means, but obviously Mr. Eddings was unaware of this. It's a pity he's died, or else I'd write to him and harangue him about it
.