A headline on the USA Today website: "Wall Street Hones in on Economy's Health."
Hmm, shouldn't that be homes in on"?
I checeked the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. It states:
"Hone In: to move toward of focus attention on an objectjective. It may have arisen from "home in" by the weakening of the "m" sound to "n" or may perhaps simply be due to the influence of "hone." Though it seems to have established itself in American English (and mention in a British usage book suggests it is used in British English too), your use especially in writing is likely to be called a mistake. "Home in" or in figuative use "zero in" does nicely.
Hone: as a verb, "to sharpen or smooth with a whetstone, or to make more acute, intense, or effective as in "...helped him hone is math skills." As a noun, a whetstone.
A LOSING BATTLE?
This feels like another losing battle, as with "hopefully" (which I admit I, like almost everybody else, now use to mean "I hope"), and, coming up fast, the loss of the distinction between literally and figuratively. But let us fight on!
EXPECT ABUSE
Having said that, I should warn you that if you ever politely correct anybody's grammar online, expect a flood of abusive comments along the lines of "get a life!", "who made you the grammar police?" (often spelled grammer police) and many less polite insults. I wonder whether Noah Webster got the 19th century version of the same response? Of course he could have said, "Yes, actually I am the grammar police."
