Talk:tinfoil
Proscribed
editBy whom is "tinfoil" in the meaning of "aluminium foil" proscribed? Lexico's definition of "tinfoil" doesn't even mention the word "tin"! It instead describes "tinfoil" as "foil made of aluminium or a similar grey metal".
So is sense 2 really "proscribed", or is it simply "technically incorrect"? There is a difference. If no authority is proscribing it, and given that "tinfoil" in the sense of "aluminium foil" is very often used nowadays even by those who never used foil made of tin, I think that it could now simply be called a secondary sense. Perhaps ever so slightly similar to what often happens with a genericised trademark.
So wouldn't "(proscribed)" be better replaced with "(technically incorrect)", if there needs to be a descriptor tag at all? Tharthan (talk) 13:04, 2 October 2020 (UTC)