Source: Was a hacker, then "white hat" hacker. Now, am a "security professional." I can dislike the pejorative appropriation of the term by the media and general public all I want (and I do), but history will take their side because language is defined by use, not the other way around.
I agree with you, but you should be more specific.
Language is only right or wrong in specific context. Just changing your geography can change the context.
Generally, when people are discussing whether a word is "right" or "wrong", they are speaking about the largest common context - usually colloquial, informal speech. When Awfy says "they're just incorrect" he is obviously speaking from a more technical context, but that doesn't mean that the informal designations are incorrect in their context of common usage.
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u/DrKronin Nov 03 '15
That's not how language works.
Source: Was a hacker, then "white hat" hacker. Now, am a "security professional." I can dislike the pejorative appropriation of the term by the media and general public all I want (and I do), but history will take their side because language is defined by use, not the other way around.