@kupfernigk wrote:
The Wikipedia article, parsed, says "A CVT...also known as a variable pulley transmission". The things in brackets are alternative terms meaning the same thing. On this occasion, I agree with Wikipedia. I have seen some truly terrible stuff in the automotive section, I think because there are a lot of amateur mechanics who fancy themselves as members of the SAE. However...I agree with you.
Although this is off topic there is a certain relevance. Human beings are very good at subtly (and not so subtly) adapting the meaning of terminology to suit their agenda. They are also very poor at risk assessment, because our evolution as a species has adapted us to assess very short term risk, but with the development of modern society these have been increasingly dealt with and we now need to assess long term risk.
Anti-vaxxers show this effect. They are faced with the extremely small short term risk of ill effects due to vaccination, which are comparable with those of being killed in a car accident on the way to the doctor. In their minds, this short term risk outweighs the long term risk of contracting measles (disclaimer: as a child I suffered brain damage and liver damage from measles before the vaccine was available.) In order to justify their beliefs they adopt phraseology to make them look rational, just as evangelicals justify their anti-Biblical views by judicious renaming ("Prosperity gospel").
Others, who want the right to do stupid things that put others at risk, like carry live guns in purses or drive dangerously, try to reclassify these behaviors as "freedom". Although this article is a joke, there are real people out there driving cars with defective brakes because they cannot be bothered or cannot afford to get them fixed.
Wikipedia is a terrible example of this, where PR departments constantly try to recast things in a light favorable to their clients, without being noticed. Killing people gets redefined as "security", buying influence as "philanthropy".
The long and the short of it is that while arguing about the meaning of words may be nitpicking, it is important if they are not to be eroded by the lazy, the criminal and the stupid.