Grammar sticklers usually fail on this point: human languages are not static, stuck in place from the time the stickler learned the rules. The current state of

Grammar sticklers usually fail on this point: human languages are not static, stuck in place from the time the stickler learned the rules. The current state of a human language is defined by common usage. The purpose of a language is for people to be able to communicate ideas. Ideas exist all up and down a specificity spectrum, e.g. “regex” might mean a specific syntax or one of several syntaxes depending on context. Kind of like “kleenex” might refer to a specific brand or to the general concept of tissue. If 99.9% of people successfully (by their own measure, not yours) communicate what they mean when they use the term “regular expression”, but you are among the 0.1% for which that interaction fails, then I would argue that the problem is your pedantry, not the term. I’m not saying this to be mean; I have similar issues.