Language may work that way, but RMS is not likely to concede the point. Thus his continuing battle over "GNU/Linux". He's a principled man, perhaps to a fault.

Yet even though 'cool' means having a low temperature nearly everywhere, in some places it also means 'awesome' or 'snazzy'.

Of course, instead of wasting 20 years trying to get the media to use "hacking" the way he wanted to, he could have instead invented a new word that meant "finding creative solutions to problems," which likely would have been picked up by the media by now. But he's stubborn like that.

The term "cracker" is doomed to never catch on. However, I don't think it's out of reach to change the meaning of hack in the public's mind. A few viral videos or some mainstream media/pop celebrity attention could quickly change the meaning of any word.