[pharmakom]

How would they define lisp?

To me Lisp means programs in list syntax with prefix notation.

[lispm]

Typically a programming language (& family) is a bit more than token syntax. You could write any programming language in prefix notation.

C is more than foo{bar}.

A programming language has dimensions like: syntax, semantics, pragmatics, implementations, standards, practice, tools, social/community, libraries, code, ...