[jzb]

Allow me to quote you back to you. "It’s also not really serverless to begin with, because at the end of the day code is being executed on a physical device that many of us might call a “server” [1]

A critical mass of people have adopted the term serverless. Therefore, the term means whatever they want it to mean, right? No sense in swimming against the tide here, correct?

Yes, words mean what people want them to mean if we're willing to shrug our shoulders and accept the new usage or terminology. That doesn't mean it's never correct to fight against sloppy or non-standard usage in the hopes that it won't be considered standard.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35811741&p=2#35812073

[cogitoergofutuo]

That’s great example! That post is an unserious riff as a response to another post that meant to assert the correctness an individual’s personal definition of a term on what I found to be tenuous pedantic grounds.

[1lint]

I think in the case of "serverless" we still share a common understanding of what the term means, even if the term itself is misleading. This "comprised of" issue is different in that it can easily cause misunderstanding between archaic and modern users of the phrase, where meaning is inverted.

[sebzim4500]

Just because he's a hypocrite doesn't mean he's wrong in this instance.

[SilasX]

Semi-related, it always bothered me that we use the term "wireless" for something that still has wires (just not between the endpoints). Though I don't object, or have a better alternative, and I get the logic of calling it wireless.

[prerok]

The better alternative is cordless, no? At least some products do use that (e.g. cordless mouse). Of course, wireless is now so widely used it might not make sense to fight it :)

[kolinko]

"Radio" would be a proper replacement for "wireless".

[jamiek88]

Funnily enough older people in England still call the radio ‘the wireless’!

[4ndrewl]

And my grandad used to say exactly the same thing about wireless radios - 'why do they call it the wireless when it's full of wires!'

[havermeyer]

I wish I could find the article I read a while ago on the history, but it reminds me of how "nauseous" ended up becoming synonymous with "nauseated."