I recall somebody (can't recall who or when) gave this definition: a scripting language is one where most of the work gets done by invoking programs written in

I recall somebody (can't recall who or when) gave this definition: a scripting language is one where most of the work gets done by invoking programs written in a different language. So sh and bash (etc.) are definitely scripting languages, Python (etc.) can be used as scripting languages, even if that isn't their typical use.