There it was in the newspaper – the use of ‘hone in on’ when the only correct usage is ‘home in on’. The story was about the pursuit by the Albanese government of a group called the Plymouth Brethren. They are, it seems, a very conservative group and during the last general election they campaigned against Labor. Anthony Albanese and senior frontbenchers have accused them of improper behaviour. But my point is an entirely verbal one. The journalist writing about this said: ‘Labor has honed in on the behaviour of the Plymouth Brethren.’ Oh, no, they haven’t! The verb ‘to hone’ means ‘to sharpen’. You can ‘hone’ a knife, you could use it figuratively and say you have ‘honed’ (sharpened) your arguments. But you can’t use ‘honed’ to mean ‘targeted’. Here’s the background. Apparently the verbal phrase ‘to home in on’ was used by pilots employing their electronic equipment to target incoming missiles or enemy aircraft. The problem is that ‘hone’ and ‘home’ sound so similar and people have forgotten that the original meaning of this verbal phrase was ‘targeting’. Webster’s English Usage (1989) notes that ‘hone in on’ seems to be on the increase, although it is not yet recognised by any of the major dictionaries. What all the dictionaries do recognise is ‘home in on’ – the Cambridge English Dictionary, for instance, says it means ‘to aim for’. I do wish some of these journalists would buy a dictionary!
I have recently been fulminating over commonly misused words and phrases. Now is time for me to vent. Here is a short list of some of the common misuses that annoy me – see if they also annoy you:
The proof is in the pudding – oh no it’s not! You won’t find the proof hidden in the pudding like a silver coin in a plum pudding. The correct expression is ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. If you don’t eat it you haven’t proved anything!
Espresso – have you noticed that people who drink eXpresso coffee also travel on a moving staircase they call an eXcalator?
One fell swoop – people say ‘one foul swoop’ – wrong! ‘Fell’ is an old English word meaning wild (it’s related to the word ‘feral’ for a wild animal, and the wild parts of the Lake District are called The Fells). It means ‘one wild swoop’ – foul is just foul!
Toe the line – I’ve seen this written as ‘tow the line.’ What do they imagine it is? A tug-of-war? No, ‘toe the line’ means stand up to the line that everyone else is lining up to, like runners at the start of a race.
Begs the question – means assuming the truth of your claim in the premise of your argument. It does not mean ‘raises the question’ or ‘avoids the question’. No one understands this, so best avoided.
Cheap at half the price – of course it would be! So sell it to me at half price! What the speaker means is ‘cheap at twice the price’.
Literally – comes from the French and means ‘to the letter’ (if you’d been there you’d have seen this physically happen). So when you say you are ‘literally’ dead on your feet you are asking me to give you a coffin, not a rest.
And I have many more on my list. What is your list of ‘misused words’? Share your list with me, and I will publish it here.
The post Language appeared first on The Spectator Australia.
