I still don't agree with your premise, people can be used as tools even when I can distinguish it from a person given other aspects (for example I may recognize

I still don't agree with your premise, people can be used as tools even when I can distinguish it from a person given other aspects (for example I may recognize that people can act autonomously and tools not). My initial question was precisely about semantics though and I think there's the possibility that my initial reasoning may not hold for some, more specific definition of tool.