In updated edition of 2003 bestseller, author Bryson thanks Delhi schoolboy for correcting error

Bestselling American-British author Bill Bryson has acknowledged an Indian schoolboy in the newly released edition of his acclaimed popular-science book A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 for identifying an etymological error that had gone unnoticed for more than two decades.

In the updated edition, Bryson has thanked Kanishk Sharma, a Class 11 student at Air Force Bal Bharati School (AFBBS) in New Delhi, for “correcting an etymological error that sat in this book for more than 20 years apparently unnoticed by anyone.”

The original 2003 edition of the book incorrectly described the term asteroids as a Latin word meaning “starlike.” While reading it, it struck Kanishk that an asteroid is actually derived from Greek — rooted in aster. He wrote to Penguin Random House UK, the publisher, which forwarded his message to Bryson. The author responded promptly and assured him the error would be fixed in the revised edition.