A client recently asked, “Is the correct wording ‘home in’ or ‘hone in’?” I thought I knew the answer—turns out I did—but I’m not one to turn down the opportunity to talk about words and usage.
Plus, it offered the chance to ground myself on stated fact rather than assumption. I said I “thought” I knew the answer. Now, thanks to a small amount of digging, I know-know it.
Some definitions always prove helpful.
Home: v., (1) (of an animal) return by instinct to its territory after leaving it; (2) move or be aimed toward (a target or destination) with great accuracy.
Hone: v., (1) sharpen (a blade); refine or perfect (something) over a period of time.
The definitions make the point: one can “home in” on a thing but not “hone in” on it. A person, after all, can act the part of a homing pigeon. They become single-minded, a messenger oriented toward a specific destination.
That same person can also hone a knife, whisk it against a whetstone. They don’t “hone in” the knife; they hone it in preparation for the work at hand—skinning a deer, whittling a piece of wood into a sparrow.
The correct wording, then, is “home in,” but, as with most usages, it’s open to debate. If the audience will follow “hone in” better than “home in,” the writer should choose the former. It’s all well and good to require correct usage in theory, but it plays out different in reality. In reality, the point is to be understood, and that sometimes means letting go of pristine, perfect usage and relying on the common vernacular.
Image: David Holt (Creative Commons)