Further From Hone

And Other Oft-Misunderstood Words

Baby: crying
CF:  Aw. There, their, they’re.
Baby: crying intensifies

Today’s article is about words that I see misused all the time in my work as an editor. I am not here to talk to you about accept and except. You don’t need to hear the good word about your and you’re. That stuff is amateur hour. This is the big kids’ table. These are the words that professional authors and writers use incorrectly all the time, the words that I get asked about the most, the words that can trip up even experienced editors. Today I’m going to go over the nuanced differences among some commonly misunderstood and misused word pairs.

Before I get going, though, a brief word about grammar policing. Look, I love words. I love knowing a lot of words, I love using words precisely. Not everyone feels that way. Sometimes when new people meet me, they’ll feel a need to apologize in advance for spelling or speech errors they might make around me because they know I’m an editor. I suspect they do this because someone has gone full pendant on them in the past and aggressively corrected their speech or writing. 

Don’t edit people’s speech and writing in social situations. Just don’t do that. It’s rude and it’s not necessary and in some cases it’s classist as well. If someone asks you for editing or proofreading help, then it’s fine to do. If someone asks you to explain the difference between two words, that’s fine. If you need clarification on something someone said, it’s fine to ask them. But there’s no need to be out in the world correcting people simply for the joy of being right. And that goes double when correcting language distracts from or derails the topic that is being discussed. Don’t be that person. Leave Britney alone.

Here in today’s Shelf Life, among our fellow writers, editors, and word nerds—let’s let our pedant flags fly.

Home v Hone

This might be the worst offender on the list. These words get used incorrectly with such frequency that they make it past editors and into books, articles, and news headlines on a regular basis (for example). 

Hone is a transitive verb meaning to sharpen or smooth something, as though with a whetstone. (A transitive verb is one that must exert its action upon an object.) For instance, you can hone a skill or a blade. Home is an intransitive verb meaning to move toward a signal or landmark (like a homing beacon). (An intransitive verb does not need to have an object to make sense.) You cannot hone in on something, you can only home in on something. 

Use the noble homing pigeon as a reminder of which is which—the homing pigeon uses magnetoreception to move always back toward its home, homing in on the nest.

This one is my favorite because I once worked with an author who had incorrectly used hone throughout his manuscript to mean home, in constructions like “to hone in on success.” I corrected each instance and left a detailed note for the author on his style sheet explaining the difference and why I had made the change. He wrote back after reviewing his copy edits and asked me to restore all instances to hone. I wrote back and talked him through the differences and explained again why home was correct for the constructions he was using, and sent him documentation from multiple dictionaries and style manuals confirming my decision. His response? “I still think hone sounds right.”

Further v Farther

Farther and further are not the same word but in an American versus a British spelling (as, for instance, toward and towards or color and colour). Farther refers to physical distance whereas further refers to figurative distance or degree. A car that has traveled ten miles out of fifty has forty miles farther to go. Places and objects, relative to you, have a nearer side and a farther side. On the other hand, a student who has completed three out of four years of their university studies has further to go. And once you have helped someone, you may help them further—but you can’t help them farther.

Further may also be used as an adverb or a verb, while farther cannot, but you don’t need to remember a rule for this—your ear will tell you that farthermore is wrong if you try to say it aloud. And I’m sure you would never try to farther your favorite cause or agenda, although you may try to further it.

Forgo v Forego

This one is hotly debated and this pair is another one that many people believe is an Americanism versus a Britishism. Most people use these interchangeably with users of UK English preferring forego and users of American English preferring forgo. Technically, though, to forgo something is to go without it, whereas to forego something is to go before it, to precede. Fore, before, forego. A foregone conclusion is one that precedes the examination of facts, so it always has that e. That’s why that brief introduction to a book is the foreword (the word that comes before) and not the forward.

So if you choose not to have dessert at all, you’re forgoing dessert. If you choose to have dinner and then dessert, dinner is foregoing dessert. I endorse foregoing in this case. Don’t skip dessert.

Merriam Webster and American Heritage both recognize that forego and forgo are used to mean the same thing so consistently that they are variants on the same word at this point, but both dictionaries also discuss their specific, different usages. 

Comprise v Compose

This one is like use and utilize—when you’ve been using compose too much and you need a synonym you might reach for comprise, but they don’t mean the same thing. To compose is to put something together from component parts (eg, to compose a symphony from individual musical notes) or to form the substance of something (as in, a soup that is composed of many ingredients). To comprise is to be composed of. So, for instance, you can compose a baseball team from nine individual players; the team is composed of nine players; the team comprises nine players. This one is pretty easy to remember: You can always use compose but you can bring comprises in to pinch hit in instances where you have written is composed of.

Insure v Ensure

When you insure something, you are taking out an insurance policy on it. In the most figurative use of insure, you might be taking extra care or precaution to make sure something happens by exercising care and taking precautions, as in to hedge (a bet, eg). For instance, you insure a car with GEICO or you might insure your successful completion of a marathon by training for it well in advance. 

To ensure something is to guarantee it, to make it sure. Insuring a thing is often a way of ensuring it as well. If you insure an event by purchasing a policy that will make you whole in the event that your event falls through—for instance, if there is a plague in the land and people cannot congregate in large groups—then you have also ensured a favorable outcome for yourself in the event that your event is canceled.

Ensure and insure are often used interchangeably to mean that an outcome is being secured in advance, but only ensure affirms a guarantee.

Use v Utilize

This is one of my favorites because I see a lot of people using the word utilize when they think they have overused use and they want to utilize a different word instead of continuing to use use.

When you use something, you are putting that thing into action. When I hold a spoon in my hand, scoop ice cream into it, and transfer that ice cream to my mouth, I’m using that spoon. When you utilize something, you are making use of it. How is that different? You’re utilizing something when you’re putting it to a use other than what it is intended for or when you’re creating a use for something that heretofore had no use. While I would use a spoon to eat ice cream, I would utilize a spoon to gouge out my enemy’s eye. MacGyver making a transistor radio out of three potatoes, a postage stamp, and a shoelace, is utilizing those items for the purpose.

Utilizing something is still using it. It’s just a specific way of using something.

Between v Among

This is another super simple one to remember that is, unfortunately, often misused. Between means there are two things: You may be between a rock and a hard place, or you may have to decide between two outfits to wear to the ball. Among means there are any number of things greater than two: You may have to choose your spouse from among six impressive suitors or decide among three vacation destinations if humans are ever able to travel again. You can’t choose between three things, or six, or ninety-nine. Between means exactly two.

That’s why Innersloth won’t let you start a game of Among Us with only three players. They’d have to call it Between Us.

Thanks for geeking out with me today about words and their precise and specific meanings. I have many more pairs like this and if you like this article, let me know and I’ll bring you more on a future occasion! In the meantime, I have something in mind for Thursday’s article but I don’t want to give too much away in case I change my mind. So you’ll just have to wait and be surprised on Thursday morning. Don’t miss your surprise! Subscribe right now and I’ll deliver it right to your inbox.

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