"Piloting" as a noun meaning alignment, fit
 

File this one under issues I have with new robotics jargon:

I have just recently started to hear the word "piloting" used as a noun to describe the relative alignment and fitup of mating components in an assembly. All instances were in reference to excellent, excellent VexPro parts.

Merriam-Webster and the OED don't include this particular usage. A Google search for "perfect piloting" lists a VexPro part in the top-10 results; all other top results were in reference to the steering and navigation of ships and aircraft.

Now, I'm not a prescriptive grammarian, but is this a new development in engineering language, or have people been saying this for a while?


Some examples:
Part description for the VersaPlanetary gearbox:
Part description for the HTD VersaPulleys:

Re: "Piloting" as a noun meaning alignment, fit
 

"install" is now a noun.

Welcome to the modern world.

Re: "Piloting" as a noun meaning alignment, fit
 

Merriam #4 and Oxford Verb #1.1 cover these uses of the word pilot.

I've seen this word used since at least back to when I was in college to describe the mechanical features that are used to ensure concentricity alignment between two parts.

Re: "Piloting" as a noun meaning alignment, fit
 

As Calvin once remarked to Hobbs, "Verbing weirds nouns."

Re: "Piloting" as a noun meaning alignment, fit
 

You'd typically see it used in the term "piloting feature" (which is at worst straightforwardly metaphorical). I suspect that the writer assumed the reader would understand it in that context, because the writer thinks hard about piloting features all day long. I don't see anything especially wrong with that.

It probably hasn't hit the OED because they're purposely slow to incorporate neologisms, and probably not as efficient with engineering terms as the are with literary ones. Presumably the Merriam-Webster website draws from their mass-market dictionary, so the presence or absence of a word shouldn't be especially significant.

Re: "Piloting" as a noun meaning alignment, fit
 

What has been getting on my nerves lately is people using the word pneumatic as a noun, as in "Why don't we just install a pneumatic?" I reply saying "A pneumatic what?"