Talk:tinfoil
Proscribed[edit]
By whom is "tinfoil" in the meaning of "aluminium foil" proscribed? Lexico's definition of "tinfoil" doesn't even mention the word "tin"! It instead describes "tinfoil" as "foil made of aluminium or a similar grey metal".
So is sense 2 really "proscribed", or is it simply "technically incorrect"? There is a difference. If no authority is proscribing it, and given that "tinfoil" in the sense of "aluminium foil" is very often used nowadays even by those who never used foil made of tin, I think that it could now simply be called a secondary sense. Perhaps ever so slightly similar to what often happens with a genericised trademark.
So wouldn't "(proscribed)" be better replaced with "(technically incorrect)", if there needs to be a descriptor tag at all? Tharthan (talk) 13:04, 2 October 2020 (UTC)