English is just weird.
Not enough dynamos: build more dynamos.
A generator is a device that converts mechanical power into electric power. A dynamo is a generator that uses a commutator to produce pulsed DC. An alternator is a generator that produces AC (which may later be rectified & filtered to DC). The term "alternator" is usually restricted to small generators used in automotive applications, larger AC generators such as those in power plants get described more precisely, e.g. induction generators or self-excitation generators. There are some other less-common generator types, such as homopolar generators that output continuous DC.
Truth is people just made stuff -bottom up- if some phrase was used it just spread out or not.
It is that even rather close neighbors might use different names or phrases for the same thing or same names for different things.
Even if at school you learn a generic version.
On a slight tangent, I took 3 years of Spanish in school in Texas where they taught Castilian Spanish instead of Mexican Spanish. You know how often I speak to Castilian Spanish people vs Mexican Spanish people...in Texas?
I was, however, vindicated later in life when I visited France and was able to get by without English.
Standing in line for currency exchange in Montreal behind a French couple almost broke my brain as I tried to listen into their conversation with the worker.
Thing is, we have such committees for English, and they say Internet should not be capitalized and I say it should, just like Earth or Sun, there's only one.
I think English is a language that lends itself to this rigid approach a bit more than some other languages, because of how common it is for English as a first language speakers to only speak English. Where I live there are a lot more languages, basically everybody is multilingual, and the level of slang, language mixing and other general bastardisation would probably make a lot of English speakers cringe…
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally
'The "in effect; virtually" meaning of literally is not new. It has been in regular use since the 18th century and may be found in the writings of some of the most highly regarded writers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Charlotte Brontë, and James Joyce.'
This is the norm for many languages. For example, French is prescribed by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_Fran%C3%A7aise , and they like to coin new terms and discourage popularly used terms.
But not English! It is the true global language with distributed decision-making.
Prescribed to who? Is it typical for French speakers to consult Académie Française before using slang, or inventing a portmanteau, or using other colloquialisms? I doubt many French people care much about the opinions of Académie Française, unless they’re actually trying to enforce the authority they believe themselves to have in some way.
The authority these institutions claim to have is almost always based on the same set of delusions. Some people care about this sort of formalism and will hold them in high esteem. Most people won’t care about their work, or will (I would say rightfully) see an institution like this as attempting to usurp authority over their language. Because a language doesn’t belong to any institution, it belongs to the speakers of that language, who are free to (and typically do) use it in whatever way they feel conveys what they’re trying to communicate.
The only time I’ve ever seen a language authority being widely valued by its community of speakers is where use of the language itself becomes a political issue, like when a mostly dead language is being revived, or when one camp strongly values the use of a language as part of their identity because some opposing camp has a different language.
https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-2001-...
Seems like motors are smaller (or maybe less complex) than engines.
Engines came from steam motors too. Here's a distinction:
Is a steam engine a motor?
A steam motor is a form of steam engine used for light locomotives and light self-propelled motor cars used on railways. The origins of steam motor cars for railways go back to at least the 1850s, if not earlier, as experimental economizations for railways or railroads with marginal budgets.