peter selinger tells me that i viciously attacked tom leinster. i would like to apologize for that appearance. i do not know tom, and had no intention to address his post more than any of the previous 200 posts about terminology. tom's was just the one where i blew up. i am sorry, tom. and i guess maybe i should say sorry to all that i blew up. but i still think that it is a pity, and curious, that the best minds of category theory don't have better things to do but to generate volumes of email about words. before i disappear, let me add two things. 1) the meanings of words evolve away from their origins, just like bat's wings and seal's flippers evolved away from their ancestors' legs. the original meaning of the word "word" was "promise". but people are ignorant, and the meaning changed. if people start using the word "schizophrenic" to describe a type of shoes, or a sexual orientation --- that will in due time become the meaning of that word. that is how languages work, if you don't mind. 2) proscribing some words for reasons of political correctness is often patronizing. let us protect the weak by using the name of their weakness only very very carefully, and with a serious face. because we are stronger, so we should protect them. (and also use the opportunity to tell everyone else what to do.) once upon a time, black people used to be called the n word by some white people. and what did black people do? yes, they wrote many petitions to guardian pleading for good style and political correctness. but since that somehow didn't work, they took the offending word and made it into their own authentication token. they made music from it. and the white people from whom the n word originated were left wordless. please lets make category theory and let language live its life. -- dusko