Not the original poster, but to me it usually refers to a language that is expressive and high-level but usually not fast or efficient enough to implement the a

Not the original poster, but to me it usually refers to a language that is expressive and high-level but usually not fast or efficient enough to implement the actual heavy lifting. It seems fair to call Python a scripting language. This is not a derogatory term, rather it actually describes a great way to build software and explains Python's success.