I can't understand your first paragraph, which is apparently arguing that hardware emulation is not emulation? I don't think there is any historical support for

I can't understand your first paragraph, which is apparently arguing that hardware emulation is not emulation? I don't think there is any historical support for limiting use of the term emulation to only software, or excluding their fpga approach, 40 years or otherwise. Analogue appears to be trying to change the definition, or more charitably, didn't know they were using the word wrong in their marketing. What I suspect it comes down to is that marketing around the idea "emulation is bad and we don't use it" is easier than having to communicate the nuance that their type of emulation is better. The exploitation of ambiguity and painting-over of nuance by marketing folks is to me just another one of many ways that marketing practices harm broader society. A similar situation was when Zoom was trying to exploit ambiguity around the meaning of end to end encryption to support their invalid but nice-sounding claim that they used it. In that case the misunderstanding could lead to bigger problems than just annoying some people & causing argument.