Game Pigeon Common Sense
- There's a new group of 800 racing pigeons up for auction after a record-breaking sale in November.
- They include descendants of previous record-breaker Golden Prince, and they all come from breeder Gino Clicque.
- Racing pigeons have picked up interest among the ultrawealthy in the past couple of years, particularly those from China.
A flock of 800 racing pigeons are up for auction starting today, following a historic sale in November.
In 2017, Belgian racing pigeon 'Golden Prince' broke records when he was sold for €360,000 (almost $430,000 at today's exchange rate). Since then, prices have been flying up for prize pigeons.
In November, 'New Kim' sold for $1.9 million - shattering the prior record set by the same owner for 'Armando,' who reportedly plans to mate the pair.
The new crop of pigeons include several of Golden Prince's descendants. All 800 of the pigeons come from one breeder, Gino Clicque; they were either born before 2019 or are new, 'unflown' descendants.
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Game Pigeon Common Sense Media
Golden Prince's then-record-breaking sale 'proved that the Golden Prince bloodline is very interesting to potential buyers,' according to Sjoerd Lei, who works in the sales department of Pipa, the Belgian auction house that specializes in pigeons and is hosting the sale. His granddaughters, First Lady and Golden Princess, are among the more acclaimed pigeons up for sale.
New Kim's record-breaking sale in November is part of a larger trend surrounding the sport. Pigeon racing, which began as a working-class sport after World War One, has become something of a prestige symbol for the wealthy. China in particular has seen a huge surge of interest.
Pipa's Niels Cuelenaere previously told Business Insider that China has around '1 million pigeon fanciers,' and their numbers were only growing.
Lei said it's 'common sense' that Chinese buyers will be interested in the new auction, although it's unclear if it will yield another record-breaking sale.
During New Kim's record-breaking sale, visitors to Pipa's site surged, according to Lei, but that has since quieted a bit. He said he expects interest to pick up again with the new sale.
At press time, the bidding for pigeon 'Golden King' was already up to €202,000 - around $245,345.
Usage NotesHome in is the more common phrase for figuratively or literally 'finding and moving directly towards something.' Home can be verb, referring to 'finding one's way to a destination' such as 'homing pigeons' and 'homing missiles' do. In the same sense one can 'home in on the answer' for example. Hone in is also acceptable but far less common, and comes from the meaning of 'hone' referring to sharpening or making more acute.
Some animals possess the uncanny ability to return to their home or to the location of their birth from just about anywhere. They're able to 'home' without the help of a GPS—which is more than most modern humans can say.
Homing in on a target
And yes: you can use the word home Game pigeon emai adress. that way.
Home as a Verb
In fact, it's this use of home that gave rise to the phrase home in, which is used both literally and figuratively to mean 'to find and move directly toward (someone or something)':
… salmon, for example, can home in on dissolved amino acids in river water … — Joseph Dussault, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Jan. 2016
They effortlessly pin down characteristics of the worst of L.A. types and home in on them … — Rebecca Bulnes, The A.V. Club, 11 Jan. 2016
But sometimes people use hone instead of home:
… the ads are starting to turn aggressive, as candidates and super PACs hone in on their opponents. — Steven Perlberg, The Wall Street Journal, 8 Jan. 2016
Asking the right questions allowed me to hone in on their specific needs. — Linda Harding-Bond, The Huffington Post, 7 Jan. 2016
And who can blame them, really? The use of home that gave us the phrase home in is unfamiliar to the great majority of us for whom the word home is exclusively a noun.
The verb home is relatively young, as words go. The noun dates to Old English, but our earliest evidence of the verb in use is from 1765, when it was used to mean 'to go or return home.' Within the next hundred years the verb had developed an animal-specific sense: an animal returning to its home or birthplace was said to be 'homing.' Usually the animal in question was a pigeon—in particular, a homing pigeon.
By the 1920s, pilots were homing toward their destinations; in the decades following, vehicles and projectiles were said to be 'homing' as they moved closer to their destinations or targets. By the 1950s home was being used figuratively to describe the action of anyone or anything proceeding toward or directing attention toward an objective.
Is Hone Wrong?
The verb hone also dates to the late 1700s. Its original meaning is 'to sharpen or smooth with a whetstone.' By the early 20th century another meaning had developed: 'to make more acute, intense, or effective.' Instead of just honing blades, people were now honing skills.
It's the narrowing or sharpening of focus implied in the figurative meaning of hone that seems to have made hone in seem like the right phrase to some, rather than home in with its unfamiliar verb home.
This use of hone in dates to around 1965, which makes it only about 10 years newer than the figurative use of home in. We have enough evidence of hone in in use that we enter it in our dictionaries. As the note at that entry makes clear, however, home in remains significantly more common, and is the version to use if you want to avoid criticism. Zero in is also an option if you want to avoid the very similar h-words altogether.
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Merriam-Webster unabridged