@jayles: As you likely know....

"Buy-to-let is a British phrase referring to the purchase of a property specifically to let out." -- "let out" (rent) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_to_let

Well, here is what GOOGLE gave me:Terms & conditions of lets - Dundee College from

"1.11 The let holder must ensure they have an appropriate level of public liability ... Use of Dundee College premises for lets to let holders shall be granted at the ..."

And from the Glasgow Government website: "IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LET HOLDER TO SIGN THE JANITOR'S ... Let holders are responsible for ensuring personal possessions are adequately ..."

It seems there is yet hope! Let-holder is good and being noted/brooked (used) for lawful writs/writings!

@jayles: I've got it!!

LET (before 900; Middle English leten, Old English lǣtan)

Well, I guess you could always go Anglo-French > leaseholder. What about flat-holder or dwelling-holder?

German Miete(r) < OHG miata, mēta < P.Gmc. *mēzdō, *mizdō "reward, payment, bribe, hire" >>> P.Gmc.*mēdō > Old English mēd, meord, meard, meorþ "reward, payment" > M.E. meede, mede > English (hoary, bygone, olden) meed. Akin to Gothic mizdō.

You could quicken 'meeder'/'meeter', right? Maybe 'meed-holder'?

Yes, 'rent(er)' is Latin-French. So is 'tenant'. "Paechlter" is 'der Pächter' from die Pacht "lease,rent", which is from L. pactum; akin to E. pact. So, its no good anyway.

@jayles:

tenent < lodger, roomer; maybe 'boarder'.

Word-of-the-Day to be thrown out of English > INCOGITANT

What a true ink-horn word!!! THOUGHTLESS is all an English speaker needs!!

Wachter says L. cambio (the root of 'change') is likely from the Germanic (Frankish) c(h)am (said *kham) < chan < khan "the hand" < P.Gmc.*khanduz, meaning "to alter, trade, barter, transform, exchange, asf. He said it means, " de rnanu in manum trado." The word "change" is said to be first known from the Frankish 'Lex Salica', and therefore, it is not unthinkable that the root could be from Frankish.

Many word-lorists today think 'change' came about thusly: Celtic *kmb-i-ati- > Celtic *kmb-io > Celtic kamb-io- > Gallo-Latin cambiō > cambīre > cambiare 'exchange' (see L. cambium) > Old French changier (where L. c = Fr. ch; L.b = Fr. soft-g;m/n are nasal, switch back and forth) > Anglo-Fr. chaunger > ME chaunge(n) > E. change.

Something worth looking into.

Why not bring Scottish 'wissel' into English?

Scottish WISSEL/WISTEL "to change, change money" < akin to Mid.Dutch/Dutch wissel; Old Franconian: wihsil; OHG/O.Sax. wehsal; MLG wessele, wissele f., wissel; ON vīxl < P.Gmc. *wīxsl(i)a-z, -n, *wixsla-z, -n. See also WISSLER "money changer".

"I find the US English explanation a bit misleading."

How so? There is no strife (< Frankish *strid) over HONE being Old English

Always use Þ instead of ð to write Ænglisc, I now say. Eth (Ð, ð) was born owing to Latin-writing Irish monks needs a mark to mean thorn (Þ, þ), I think. That is why eth is in Icelandic and Faroese, as well as, Old English.

As for "hone in", I know "home in" is right. The 'm' and 'n' are right next to each other on my keyboard.

So, no one seems to talk about how "hone in" came about. It is an American-English eggcorn. It is from a book called Paper Lion by George Plimpton (1965), "...looking back for the ball honing in to intercept his line of sight...”

Home in < pilot talk: "home on the beacon", meaning guided back to base by a radio beacon < from what homing pigeons do.

It seems "hone in" will likely stay in English, sad to say. It seems to be said much more often than "home in", its rightness notwithstanding.