Follow-up Comment #2, bug #67693 (group groff): People with far more typographical expertise than me have defended "point size" as an accepted term of art. (See comment #1.) But it's also worth looking at grammatically.
"Point size" seems to mean "size of a point," similar to how "rock size" would
mean "size of a rock." In this conventional parsing of this phrase, the term
does seem nonsensical, since a point is a unit of measurement: it's akin to
saying "inch size."
But, although not idiomatic, the phrase "what is the inch size of that rock?"
could be taken to mean "what is the size of that rock in inches?" Similarly,
"point size" could, instead of "size of a point," mean "size in points." And
this usage is very much idiomatic in typography.
It also results in a small efficiency: it requires one less word to say "The
point size is 12" than "The type size is 12 points."
So I'll close this ticket unless someone objects.
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