I think what happened is that the word "field" won over the word "ether", probably because there was a not very successful "aether theory" on the days of old.

I think what happened is that the word "field" won over the word "ether", probably because there was a not very successful "aether theory" on the days of old. Certainly if you read this[1] 1999 article by Wilczeck it is clear that he just points out that we got an awful lot of field theories around, and that fields are basically a sort of ether. Which, you know, sure, but why not keep calling them fields? Since then he has proposed that you can have a current spike travel endlessly around in a super conductive loop and named it a "time crystal", so I guess he likes fanciful language. 1: http://ctpweb.lns.mit.edu/physics_today/phystoday/Ether.pdf http://ctpweb.lns.mit.edu/physics_today/phystoday/Ether.pdf