This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Home (the verb) means to seek home, as in a homing pigeon seeking it’s base, or nest, or roost, or “home.” Hone is a very old word and it pre-dates the more modern home (verb).
“Empathy” vs. “Sympathy”: Which Word To Use And When, These Are Some Of The Best Words To Describe Scorpios. In the same sense one can "home in on the answer" for example. John Grisham once admitted that this article from 1973 helped him write his thrillers. Q: My niece is always misusing the word “hone” when she should be using “home.” I know the difference, but have a tough time explaining it to her.
Club, 11 Jan. 2016.
This is a mistake people make all the time.
The verb “hone” means “to sharpen or make more acute,” as in honing a talent. Zero in is also an option if you want to avoid the very similar h-words altogether.
Redefine your inbox with Dictionary.com updates! Murder: Differences In Intent And Degree.
Nevertheless, to keep your writing clean and clear, it is a good idea to steer clear of hone in. What Does The Name “Frankenstein” Actually Mean? Often people misuse the word “hone” by placing it in sentences where it doesn’t belong, but it’s a simple confusion that can be cleared up by understanding its definition.
Are these two verbs interchangeable or do they have discrete meanings? They're able to "home" without the help of a GPS—which is more than most modern humans can say. Pam Peters The phrase home in on originated with pilots finding their direction beacon, or missiles which home in on the heat emitted from the target satellite.
“WikiLeaks” vs. “Wikipedia”: Do You Know The Difference?
“Forget about the abs!” I said as I homed in on a mouth-watering candy bar. Delivered to your inbox! Does a musician hone her skills or home them? How to use a word that (literally) drives some pe... Name that government! [Hone in, alteration of home in.] As a simple rule of thumb, if you write the sentence and need the phrase “in on” after the verb, it’s most likely “home.” If not, you probably need to use “hone.”, Follow me on Twitter: @BrianKlemsRead my parent humor blog: The Life Of DadSign up for my free weekly eNewsletter: WD Newsletter.
The verb home is relatively young, as words go.
The verb hone also dates to the late 1700s.
As a result, some dictionaries include a definition of hone that borrows the target theme from home: “to focus attention on an objective.” And some include a definition home that is synonymous with hone.
Both candidates will continue fracking, coyote What to Know. I hone my abs by doing 100 sit-ups a day.Generally, people drop it into sentences where they should use “home.”. And who can blame them, really? What does homed in expression mean?
Usually the animal in question was a pigeon—in particular, a homing pigeon.
Instead of just honing blades, people were now honing skills. 'Nip it in the butt' or 'Nip it in the bud'. Every Wednesday, Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and an example poem to get things started on the Poetic Asides blog. More figuratively, it's used of narrowing the focus of an inquiry or discussion, as in: Several unions homed in on 'non standard' workers. By the 1920s, pilots were homing toward their destinations; in the decades following, vehicles and projectiles were said to be "homing" as they moved closer to their destinations or targets. Alfred honed his negotiation skills to buy a new car at a very reasonable price. In the mid-1800s it began to be used as a verb meaning “to go or return home,” popping up frequently in discussion of homing pigeons. Homed in ... hone for; hone for (someone or something) hone in; hone in on (something) honest; honest and aboveboard; honest as the day is long;
So the simple answer is that a person, bird, or aircraft homes in on a target, but a person hones his or her skills.
— Linda Harding-Bond, The Huffington Post, 7 Jan. 2016.
Does a plane home in on a target or hone in on it? Spikes During Presidential Debate, Set your young readers up for lifelong success, Study Up With Our Official SCRABBLE Dictionary. Definition of homed in in the Idioms Dictionary.
What’s The Difference Between Ghouls, Goblins, And Ghosts? By the 1950s home was being used figuratively to describe the action of anyone or anything proceeding toward or directing attention toward an objective. In this article, author, writing coach, and copywriter David Pennington teaches you the simple secrets of excellent copywriting. malarkey The expression honing-in did not occur until after the advent of the expression homing-in.
In this article, author Dustin Grinnell examines Jon Franklin’s award-winning article Mrs. Kelly’s Monster to help writers master the use of literary techniques in narrative journalism.
In the early 1900s, home picked up the more specific sense of “to proceed, especially under control of an automatic aiming mechanism, toward a specified target, as a plane, missile, or location.”. In the same sense one can "home in on the answer" for example. —Carol M. No problem at all, Carol. Before you go correcting someone's use of home in or hone in, be sure you know the definitions of the two so you get it grammatically correct. fracking This week, it's fighting time.
Enter your email for word fun in your inbox every day. Home in is the more common phrase for figuratively or literally "finding and moving directly towards something." Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. Can you explain this rule for us?
Like this Word Fact? Home can be verb, referring to "finding one's way to a destination" such as "homing pigeons" and "homing missiles" do. Biden's favorite word?
I hone my abs by doing 100 sit-ups a day.Generally, people drop it into sentences where they should use “home.” The use of home that gave us the phrase home in is unfamiliar to the great majority of us for whom the word home is exclusively a noun. We have enough evidence of hone in in use that we enter it in our dictionaries. Every good story needs a nice (or not so nice) turn or two to keep it interesting.
— Steven Perlberg, The Wall Street Journal, 8 Jan. 2016, Asking the right questions allowed me to hone in on their specific needs.
Alfred honed his negotiation skills to buy a new car at a very reasonable price. What’s The Difference Between Atheism And Agnosticism? Manslaughter vs.
Hone in is also acceptable but far less common, and comes from the meaning of "hone" referring to sharpening or making more acute.
A few centuries later, hone picked up the verb meaning “to sharpen on a hone.” The sharpening element took figurative shape in the now widely used verb sense from the early 1900s: “to make more acute or effective; improve; perfect.” This is the sense invoked when we talk of improving one’s skills, as in “The pianist honed his articulation with hours of practice.”, The word home also entered English as a noun; it first referred to a dwelling, house, or shelter. Check out words from the year you were born and more! Within the next hundred years the verb had developed an animal-specific sense: an animal returning to its home or birthplace was said to be "homing." New literary agent alerts (with this spotlight featuring Amy Collins of Talcott Notch Literary Services) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.
The noun dates to Old English, but our earliest evidence of the verb in use is from 1765, when it was used to mean "to go or return home."
Some animals possess the uncanny ability to return to their home or to the location of their birth from just about anywhere. Are these two verbs interchangeable or do they have discrete meanings?
This use of hone in dates to around 1965, which makes it only about 10 years newer than the figurative use of home in. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Style guides urge writers to observe this distinction and avoid using hone in altogether. Does a musician hone her skills or home them? “Panic Attack” vs. “Anxiety Attack”: Which One Have You Had? The not-so-simple answer is that the meaning of a word is dictated by its usage, and people use these terms in overlapping and sometimes fused ways. But sometimes people use hone instead of home: … the ads are starting to turn aggressive, as candidates and super PACs hone in on their opponents. © 2020 Active Interest Media All Rights Reserved.