"hone through"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/27/2011 12:25 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>On 4/26/2011 11:52 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Herb Stahlke<hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      "hone through"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>I found the following odd usage of "hone" on the Kendall College web
>>site.  The first 100 google hits for "hone through" show no other
>>examples of this usage.   There were a lot of examples of "hone
>>through" in the sense of running a hone through something and a lot of
>>misspellings for "bone," "shone," "phone," etc..  There were a number
>>of instances of honing skills through practice, and that seems a
>>likely route by which this example arose.
>>
>>"At Kendall, we start with the fundamentals, then incorporate advanced
>>culinary techniques and skills. Students hone through this knowledge
>>by practicing them in real-world environments beyond the classroom,
>>including the two Kendall restaurants and through mandatory
>>internships."
>>http://culinary.kendall.edu/academics/aas-culinary-arts/
>>   ....
>--
>
>I can't be sure, but I suspect this is gibberish from a cut-and-paste
>error or similar boo-boo. I would expect "Students hone their/these
>skills by practicing them ..." or something like that. ("Hone their
>skills" seems a popular phrase in such contexts.)
>
>The above text seemingly has been on the page since 2009 (per Wayback),
>but probably these 'blurbs' are not often read critically.
>
>-- Doug Wilson

Or a confusion with "home in on"?  Although "practicing" is not "home
in on" to me.

Joel

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