Which Word When, part II

peek, peak, and pique To peek is to take a brief and sometimes secretive glance at something. A peak is the highest point of something. Pique, however, is a bit more complicated. Most dictionaries consider its primary definition to be “vexation or resentment resulting from wounded pride,” but in our business we generally intend it to mean its secondary or even tertiary* definition – that is, “to arouse or evoke interest.” (And, of course, add an acute accent to the final e – piqué – and you’ve got a polo shirt.) Shane's interest was piqued after he took a peek at Jane’s plans to scale the highest peak in the Alps. lead and led A leader leads (present tense), a leader led (past tense), a leader has led (past participle). The mix-up of led and lead may be because the metal lead (Pb) is pronounced like led. Though Morris had led the tour previously, it was Boris who would lead it today. home and hone People always want to hone in on things, and while the vocabulary police won’t toss you into the clink for doing so, you’re better off homing in instead. Traditionally, hone means “to make perfect or complete,” as in “Peri honed her skills as a landscape architect,” while home means “to proceed or direct attention toward an objective,” as in “Harry is homing in on stardom.” One way to easily remember the difference between hone and home is to think about the homing pigeon or a homing device.   That said, according to the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, “The few commentators who have noticed 'hone in' consider it to be a mistake for home in. It may have arisen from home in by the weakening of the em sound to en or may perhaps simply be due to the influence of hone. Though it seems to have established itself in American English . . . your use of it especially in writing is likely to be called a mistake.”    * Tertiary is a good word to know. It means ”coming third in place, order, degree or rank.”