CavyherdGAAAAHHHH!
People!!
You don't "hone in on"—
Homing pigeons & range-finders "home in on"—HOME with an •M•
You hone a •blade•, as in "sharpen"....
...
It makes my fucking brain itch....
..
Yes, it's hopeless, I know....
Ken Fallon (PA7KEN, G5KEN)@cavyherd
Hone is the engineering process of removing less and less material to "hone in" on the correct dimension without removing too much.
It can refer to sharpening a blade but is more often used in coming to a high degree of flatness or roundness. In much the same way as people remove layre lines from a 3d print with sand paper going from courser to finer. But with much much more percision.
Without wishing to offend any pigeon fanciers among us, to me the idea of the concept of slowly, and methodically honing in on a goal, better describes the idea trying to be conveyed than a flapping pidgin.
While "home in" may be in popular use slightly longer, it is not so long that could not be explained by the delay Engineers attempting to correct a misheard term by someone not familiar with, or perhaps even knowing this process existed.
<squints suspiciously>
Hm....
Well, I guess a case could be made.
I still dislike the conflation.
I am fully braced to concede that this may be grammar-nanny-ing of a type with whingeing about singular "they"....
(I'm a certified Old Phart, so I'm Allowed 😂)