Nathan Yau of Flowing Data has a blogpost about the many terms floating around visualization. It’s worth reading! But, in my opinion, not complete without Robert Kosara’s sometimes constrasting view.
Terminology is often flourishing in thriving disciplines where people seek to differentiate themselves and find their niche. It’s probably not that bad, but while potentially adding differentiation it also introduces confusion (as above posts/lists show), especially when talking to people with a slightly different angle.
As a terminologist, I agree that terminology is indeed a beast. For the people who are creating new concepts maybe in a new conceptual area, it might not be so bad. Sometimes it might occur as fun to coin new terms. But for those who would like to understand the subject matter proliferation of terminology, particularly when the terms are not defined, can be a real headache. As terminologists, we try to help experts standardize. Looks like the conceptual area of visualization could stand to be standardized a bit more.