Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Feels greasy on the skin? Would that be a flaw?
This stuff drives me crazy. I do love the inadvertent poetry, but I feel that we are losing odd old forms and having them replaced by commonplace words. “Honing in on” really raises my shackles. Er, hackles.
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“Flaw in the ointment” is in the Database: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/133/flaw/
I know what you mean about losing odd old words. I’ve had many posts on the forum in which I’ve railed against people railing against linguistic change, but I too have a sentimental attachment to a lot of quirky old words endangered by their eggcornish progeny.
But in this regard, “hone in on” is something of a fence-sitter for me. “Home in on” is a rank newcomer, a phrase that hasn’t been around a whole lot longer than “hone in on”; it’s been competing with the eggcorn for most of its short life. And “hone” as a verb isn’t all that old, but it’s not a verb you meet everyday, and it certainly carries more than a whiff of its ancient, Anglo-Norse roots. The substituted word in most eggcornish phrases is a really common word; “hone in on” by contrast is a bit of an oddball in featuring a quirky word like “hone.” As a result, I like it—it keeps “hone” in front of people, and reminds them of a useful alternative to more common words like “sharpen,” “refine,” “practice,” etc.
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