In science, specifically statistical analysis, accuracy and precision have two distinct meanings and if used interchangeably would lead to great confusion - when applied to rifle shooting they also “should” have two different meanings as some have pointed out. The dilution of language/meaning and specific meaning of words is concerning to some of us.
PennDog
You might want to read this history of the
Oxford English Dictionary--
https://www.oed.com/information/about-the-oed/history-of-the-oed/?tl=true. This might modify your notion that "The dilution of language/meaning and specific meaning of words is concerning to some of us."
All modern languages are living and hence changing. Even in Germany, where it's supposedly frozen in time by an official board of language, they're still waffling on whether ALL nouns should be capitalized, instead of just proper nouns, the tradition in English.
Just because certain disciplines, whether benchrest shooting or statistical analysis, have their own specialized meanings doesn't mean that's the ONLY meaning for certain words. (I am quite familiar with statistical analysis, due to my years as a wildlife biology major--as was my mother when doing the research for her Ph.D. on behavioral analysis.)
You also might check the rest of the posts on this thread, and add up how many involve group size as a definition of "accuracy." This is a good example of "common usage."
