Homer Is a Home Run and a Homing Pigeon
A homer is a home run in baseball. The word also names a homing pigeon and an ancient unit of volume.
A homer is a home run in baseball, and also a homing pigeon. A racing pigeon's ability to find home over hundreds of miles is still not fully explained: experiments point to a magnetic sense, the position of the sun and a map built from smells, and birds appear to use different cues in different conditions. A *homer* is also an ancient Hebrew unit of dry volume, and in Scottish and Irish usage a job done privately by a tradesman.
- A home run. *He hit a homer.*
- A homing pigeon. *A racing homer.*
- A private job (Scots and Irish). *Doing a homer.*
- An ancient measure. *A homer of barley.*
- Home — the root. *Going home.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | homer | A homer. |
| Plural | homers | Two homers. |
| Verb | home | Home in on. |
| Adjective | homing | A homing pigeon. |
| Old English | ham | Home. |
- He hit a homer in the ninth.Baseball.
- The homers were released at dawn.Pigeon racing.
- He's doing a homer at the weekend.Scots and Irish.
How pigeons find home
- Magnetic sense — detecting the earth's field
- Sun compass — using the sun's position with an internal clock
- Olfactory map — building a picture from wind-borne smells
- Landmarks — used for the final approach
- No single explanation fits all the experimental evidence
From *home*, Old English *ham*, a dwelling. The baseball sense is American, from the 1860s.
How do homing pigeons navigate?
Evidence points to a combination of magnetic sensing, a sun compass and a map built from smells, with landmarks for the last stage.
What is doing a homer?
In Scottish and Irish usage, a tradesman doing a private job outside their regular employment, often cash in hand.