home/hone switch

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 25, 2004, at 11:07 AM, Stahlke, Herbert F.W. wrote:

> Using "hone" for "home" in expressions like "home in on" has been
> common
> for at least two decades.  The MWDEU's earliest citation is from George
> H. W. Bush in 1978, so it must have been around a good bit before that.
> Today, however, I came across my first instance of "home" for "hone",
> in
> the sense of "sharpen"...

> "Questions about the pair's Olympic chances arose in June, shortly
> after
> May pulled an abdominal muscle.  She spent most of the summer rehabbing
> while Walsh kept homing her game with other partners."
>
> Is this a nonce instance, or are "home" and "hone" trading places?

my guess -- only a guess -- is that this a hypercorrection: a writer
who kept getting flak about "hone in on" became suspicious of *all*
occurrences of "hone".

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)