The word pinpoint was trending recently on EtymOnline.com, so naturally, I had to click in and see what was so interesting. And what I learned was that the way we use it most often–“to locate precisely”–is actually an aeronautic term dating from 1917.
Before that, pinpoint was a noun only, dating from around 1849, and it meant (gasp) “the head of a pin.” I know, I know. You never would have expected that! 😉 But as the field of aeronautics developed, they borrowed the word to mean “place identified from the air,” presumably because they could put a pin in a map, and it was used to ascertain where the aircraft was positioned. Hence, that verb we know so well today, which was aviator slang back a century ago. Phrases like pinpoint accuracy are from WW2 and was still aviator slang, used for precision bombing.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.