>Actually, I dislike the general degrading of the english language I've seen over the last 40-50 years. Gay used to mean happy. Now it means anything homosexual and most, if not all folks I know who are homosexual are anything but happy. The original useage of the word "champaign" meant "high, grassy plain"

I really don't know what connects champaign with champagne, except pronunciation. Champagne is the province in France where this sort of wine was invented, and the name is a trademark. If you drank something called "champaigne", that's probably not the original stuff, and if it was carbonated (and not naturally fermented into that state), then it's surely not it.

>I'm not sure what one can do about this lack of intellectual discipline as society has all but abandoned any kind of desire for 'exactness' in using the language.

But that's why OOP thrives in English speaking areas - overloading the words with multiple meanings is so common, that the idea that different classes may have a method with the same name, which would do different things depending on implementation, comes as a natural idea.

"I used to mine ore in this mine of mine, but I took a mine to mine it." See what I mean?

>I suppose at the end of the day a lot of this stems from the general lack of structure in the English language.

Not just the end of day - it happens all day long.

BTW, why do people say "so long" when they part, and nobody's really going fishing?

So, I think using the term "evangelist" is actually a sign of high spirits. Self-mockery is a rare art.