"Artificial" diamonds.
Unless I've misread something, these are genuine diamonds. IE, carbon crystals.
"Artificial" makes people think of moissanite and similar materials.
Unless I've misread something, these are genuine diamonds. IE, carbon crystals.
"Artificial" makes people think of moissanite and similar materials.
So the word is used in different contexts. And De Beers is more than willing to use the term artificial diamond. They can claim that they're not lying, but they're also very happy that it's also easy for customers to think its artificial in the fake sense, not in the man-made sense.
Because lab-grown animal skin is not on the market (as far as I know), so artificial implies that it's fake. If it were, though, and at least roughly as common as fake leather. I'm sure no-one would try to refer to it as natural. It would still be artificial, and artificial would cease to imply it being fake.
If people choose to refer to fake leather as artificial leather, it's because artificial, real leather was hardly in the realm of the imaginable. Many would refer to it as impossible or at least as an act against God.
> So the word is used in different contexts.
What's being used in different contexts is the word "leather" to refer to both real and fake leather.
"Artificial" is always used to refer to the non-natural, the man-made. I can't think of any case where it's used differently.
made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural.
"her skin glowed in the artificial light"
Natural: Mined. Synthetic: Lab grown but real. Artificial: Another substance that looks similar.
Random thought, someones going to make bank growing synthetic leather.