“hone in” vs. “home in”

In common with the majority of the English speaking world I do not consider Merriam-Webster a definitive, nor even proper, source of information on the language.
The use of "hone in" instead of "home in" is erroneous.
http://grammar.about.com/od/alightersideofwriti...

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@Remek
Should the media, whether in print, on radio, or on television, not have a responsibility to foster proper use of the language?
"Hone in" is wrong. If the phrase had some humourous or literary merit then it might be acceptable, but as it stands it is not.

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Let's get back to your original question: why does sports media persist in the use of the phrase “hone in” instead of “home in”?

Because they can. Because nobody cared/cares about this, and something they may have started as a word-joke is so widely spread, that it's accepted as the norm. The language is alive, and that's just another example of its slow but sure evolution.

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Because the sports media aren't exactly known for high intellect.

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"Home in" is the correct version. I had never heard of "hone in" until I saw it here yesterday. It's HOME IN not HONE... You can hone your skills but you home in on a target.

I have a pilot's license and worked in aviation for many years ... we have homing beacons ... not honing.

home (v.) - 1765, "to go home" from home (n.). Meaning "be guided to a destination by radio signals, etc. (of missiles, aircraft, etc.) is from 1920; it had been used earlier in reference to pigeons (1862). Related: Homed; homing. O.E. had hamian "to establish in a home".

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"It came to public attention and gained some notoriety when George Bush used it in the presidential campaign of 1980 — he spoke of “honing in on the issues”."

The fact that Bush used it is surely reason enough for the rest of the English speaking world to avoid it like the plague.

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I don't normally defense sports casters, but "hone in on" just sounds more edumicated. And I think the point might be "getting closer and closer to the target". You "hone in" on your target by mentally sharpening your aim. First you look at that part of the field; then at that particular player; then his hands. Plus, can you "home in" on third base? That could be mighty confusing for some ball players.

But to hone in on the question, please remember we're talking about sports casters and Dubya Bush. Seriously, what do you expect?

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Remek, Perfect Pedant, you two have made me smile today. Did either of you actually read the M-W link? It's ironic that Remek's posting of it actually supports the notion that "hone in" is considered incorrect. A further irony, in Perfect Pedant's rejection of all things M-W, he is rejecting something that supports his own argument.

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HOME in comes from HOMING MISSILES homing in on their target. HONE in means to sharpen or to finely adjust something. You can hone in on a radio frequency but you HOME in on a target.

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This is one of the neatest examples of language evolution that I have seen. There are a few excellent academic treatments of the subject available, one being here. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hom1.htm
I had never heard the expression "hone in on" until the past two years, and have heard it used (so far) only by under thirties, who have never heard of a radio homing beacon. To them, homing in made no sense. Unlike the dumbed-down use of unique, which has destroyed the value of a word that was "unique" in it's meaning (or, perhaps, singular), the morphing of home to hone, while almost certainly coming about through misunderstanding, has some logic behind it. There is no harm here, only a little confusion and fun discussion, until home in is finally vanquished in the USA. From there, who kows where it will go, but my vote is that it will prevail throughout the English speaking world.

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If we kept away from every word that Bush used, we wouldn't hav many words left.

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well...

If you consider a phenomenon known since 1965 to be "traditional", traditionally, a missile hones in on a target.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hone%...

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@Hairy Scot: don't confuse me for their defender. I'm just stating the fact... I'm not in the position to judge the evolution for the direction its taking, either.

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@porsche
Thanks for pointing that out.
I'll admit I tend to dismiss M-W out of hand.
In future I shall look before I leap.

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@porsche, Hairy Scot
I too am guilty of of being dismissive of M-W.
Thank you Porsche for pointing us all in the right direction.

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>>Because the sports media aren't exactly known for high intellect.<<

And their readers, even less so!

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@Bob Sheidler
I was actually referring to TV sports commentators.
Have never seen this particular goof in print.
Maybe depends on the newspapers one reads.

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You know, I used to think of "hone in on" as some kind of metaphor, comparing the convergence of several possible paths on a single locus, with the sharpening of a blade, the thicker metal tapering to a fine edge. After reading this and researching further, I now think that such a comparison is utter nonsense. Clearly it's "home".

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truth be told, someone in the press office probably had a deadline for an article about some sporting event, or other. In the rush to make the deadline... someone mistakenly pressed the wrong key on the keyboard. M and N laying just next to one another as they do, is not an impossible error to have made. Thereafter, other journalists, poking fun at the journalist's mistake, and the remainder of the English speaking world being, largely, dunces at their own language, no one caught it until you did ;-D

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@evath
You could be right!

:)

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Surely the reason for this fairly humble mistake is obvious? It's pronunciation.

It is based entirely on the phonetic proximity of the "m" in "home" with the "n" in "in".

Hardly catastrophic.

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@rwsmith

I agree, had to think on it a bit. I feel the phrase does originate with the concept of homing in a target, but I like the nuance of hone as sharpening a focus or fine tuning something. Even an archer adjusting his aim to get closer to his target on successive shots could be said to be "honing in" on it. In any particular situation each phrase is probably somewhat more appropriate than the other. Thank goodness for language evolution, otherwise we'd all be speaking Proto-Indo-European or something and life would be boring.

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@campobello
It is more like downgrading than evolution and there is nothing neat about it.
Just another sorry example of how acceptance of erroneous usage is leading to debasement and dumbing down of the language.

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