[tomc1985]

Indeed. It's been a while since I've had to so much as think about big O notation and I forgot that quirk. To most folks "exponential" means n^2 or greater

[recursive]

Most folks are using the word wrong then.

[derefr]

“Superlinear” is the word you’re looking for.

[Monory]

Superlinear can mean O(n log n) or anything like that, which is smaller than O(n^2).