Your example confuses precise with detailed. They are different
concepts.
Doh! I think I see what you're getting at now. You
appear to think that precise and detailed are mutually exclusive concepts but I
think that there is a degree of overlap.
I'm largely depending on this
website, www.etymonline.com, and my knowledge of latin is extremely rudimentary
but in giving definitions of the meanings of words I prefer to use an
etymological dictionary, rather than a "popular" dictionary which will give
meanings to words that are in popular use. For example I give you the
oxymoronic irregardless.
Anyway, the way I look at the
meanings of the words accurate, precise and detail are:
Accurate, from Latin accuratus "prepared with care,
exact, elaborate" past participle of accurare "take care of". Accuracy is
about taking care when doing something - the result will be reliable.
Precise, from Latin praecisus "abrupt, abridged,
cut off", past participle of praecidere "to cut off, shorten". The meaning I
ascribe to this is "being definite" or "having a definite edge". Precision
being the degree to which that "edge" is defined.
Detail, from French détail, from Old French detail
"small piece or quantity", literally "a cutting in pieces", from detaillier "cut
in pieces", from de- "entirely" (see de-) + taillier "to cut in pieces" (see
tailor).
Detail, from the etymology above, is from tailor, and a tailor was, according to this website,
historically a cutter of clothes. A tailor was effectively a "fabric engineer".
So I'd say that detail has connotations of being an engineering
term.
Whilst modern dictionaries may show accurate being a synonym of
precise I still think there are differences in meaning. Words change their
meaning over time so it's only natural that there will be a degree of
disagreement over what they actually mean.
j
[In looking up these
words I also checked on exact, from Latin exactus "precise, accurate, exact",
past participle of exigere "demand, require", literally "to drive or force out",
also "demand, finish, measure".
I'm not sure what to make of this in
order for it to fit but I think that for something to be exact it should be done
with precision and accuracy, that is there should be reliability and the
requirement of a degree of definition which reduces the risk of misunderstanding
of what is being described whether it is a news report or the size of a
fossil.]
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