When is a word not a word?

[Kragen Sitaker]

>From a.f.c, a rumor that x86 isn't the only architecture that calls a
word something other than a word:

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Is a VAX a mainframe?
From: eugene@cse.ucsc.edu (Eugene Miya)
Message-ID: <39667cfe$1@news.ucsc.edu>
Date: 7 Jul 2000 17:59:42 -0800

. . .
There are little artifacts like a 16-bit entity on an Alpha is a "word"
and a 64-bit entity is a Quad word. . . .