I thought the consensus at this point was that "windmill" basically meant "wind turbine", at least colloquially, in the same way that a "battery" really should be called a "cell".

I'd got the impression that "windmill" was the deliberately wrong use of terminology by people opposed to wind power to trivialise or ridicule it. But that may just be me reading the Telegraph.

In my particular case, it wasn't meant to be offensive or dismissive at all; I think wind turbines are very cool.

I'm not part of that consensus. A mill mills.

Please don't be so pedantic. It's quite clear what GP was talking about and strongly likely that they're also aware that nothing is being milled by the structures. Jumping in with an unnecessary correction to terminology doesn't add anything to the conversation.

The distinction is important when the Dutch patent trolls show up and demand a licensing fee.

The patent troll(s) in the the industry are mostly German and Danish.