[jjoonathan]

If it doesn't have the right length, impedance, and possibly orientation it's going to be significantly less effective. Even at this scale it probably makes sense to distinguish a wire antenna from a wire on that basis.

For more powerful equipment getting the wrong wire geometry could melt your expensive setup and get you in trouble with the FCC, so it makes even more sense to tack on the word "antenna" to mean "I've thought about this chunk of metal outside the DC approximation."