"home" = "sharpen"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 9:52 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 8:55 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 8:02 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>
>>> In commenting this evening on Romney's predicted reorientation after
>>> Santorum's "suspension" of his campaign, WCVB Boston (channel 5) news
>>> put up (and discussed) a slide with four things he was expected to
>>> do.  For example, "Raise money."  But one was "Home his message."
>>>
>>> I leave it to others better equipped than I to develop pertinent puns>
>>
>> I suppose this is a type of hypercorrection, based on anxieties over
>> the propriety of "hone in on."
>
> While I've often heard "hone in on" from my students and on TV, I've
> never noticed any anxiety on the part of its users.  On the contrary,
> they are surprised when it's pointed out that this is a relatively
> recent modification of "home in on," and some users have insisted the
> "hone in on" is the more correct of the two.

Someone writing copy for a TV news program might be more aware of the
proscription against "hone in on," and more likely to make a quick
(mis)correction.

As for whether "hone in on" is a "relatively recent modification,"
MWDEU dates it to 1965, in George Plimpton's _Paper Lion_. But with
some help from Google Book Search we can go back another two decades.
The passage below appears in Meridel Le Sueur's short story "O Prairie
Girl, Be Lonely", first published in _New Caravan_ (1945). Google
doesn't have the original publication, but it does have it
anthologized in two books:

_Cross Section 1947_, Edwin Seaver, ed.
http://books.google.com/books?id=SOpZAAAAMAAJ
http://books.google.com/books?id=fLwSAAAAIAAJ

_Ripening_ (1982, 1990), Elaine Hedges, ed.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1RhbAAAAMAAJ
http://books.google.com/books?id=9WLJ015CZ-0C

---
We got to do it quick and easy, see? Everything depends on it like
Hitler does it. Know how Hitler does it? Surprise, that's his racket,
that's the thing Hitler's got, surprises . . . the poor rubes don't
know what's up and don't believe anything's going to happen and before
they know it he's over the hurdles with the dough in his jeans pretty
as a picture.
Yeah, Hone says, that baby's smart.
Plenty, Ganz says. I'd like to hone in on his racket. What we need in
this country is somebody like Hitler, that's what we need.
---

This is complicated by the fact that one of the characters in the
story is named Hone. So perhaps it was meant as a pun, possibly on
"horn in on" (which would fit the context better).

(A version also appeared embedded in the novel _The Girl_, completed
in 1939 but not published until 1978.)

And I believe the earliest we have for "home in on" is from 1944 in
the Chicago Tribune.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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