Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Username

neuticle

Member Since

May 4, 2012

Total number of comments

1

Total number of votes received

1

Bio

Latest Comments

“hone in” vs. “home in”

  • May 4, 2012, 1:03pm

@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.