The usage of the term "vegetarian" in the US is not consistent enough to come up with a precise definition, probably due to the mixture of so many cultures bringing their variation and translations. So it's always good to clarify on particular food items in my experience. Some will consider eggs part of a vegetarian diet, others will be practically offended at the ridiculousness of the idea.

Huh? I'm American and even used to work as a professional line cook. Vegetarian has only ever meant "no meat products" to me. Vegan means "no animal products of any kind", and anything else requires a more specific phrase like "I'm vegetarian, and also I don't eat eggs", or "I can't eat any dairy products at all", or whatever.

Yeah poeple are overcomplicating the shit out of that.

The times I have to explain people "It's just not meat" is through the roof.

Eggs are definitely a grey area for vegetarians, to the point where vegetarians will describe ovo-lacto-vegetarians where they are ok with eggs (and animal milk) whereas others aren't.

I've been vegan for over 15 years, but even when I was vegetarian, I never really considered eggs to be vegetarian. Though some people do.

i wonder if this is more of a west coast/india diaspora phenomenon

Technically since they're not meat and aren't born, but they're not vegan or ethical. The treatment of hens is inhumane.

i'm vegan so cool it, just describing the state of modern american understandings of words

Sorry I didn’t mean to come off as “hot”.

on reflection you didn't, another reply did

Some vegetarians make exceptions for eggs, but I wouldn't call it "vegetarian" personally. You do you though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism

Yes.

Vegetarians don’t eat meat (including fish, although some religious sects have a marketing deal with fishermen to count fish as a vegetable for some reason), do eat animal products.

Vegans don’t eat meat and also don’t eat animal products.

I always found this a funny etymological thing. Going just by the words themselves, if you asked me to guess which was which, I'd say they should be reversed -- "vegetarian" seems to clearly imply "eats a diet made up of vegetables" whereas "vegan" is more ambiguous and seems to fit "mostly eats vegetables but also will eat some non-meat animal products".

But what I'm guessing happened is that the less-strict diet came first (at least in the modern era), so got the "vegetarian" moniker, and then we just needed another work for the strict no-animal-products diet so had to come up with "vegan".

The term goes back to the Vegetarian Society in England, and was also popularized by Seventh Day Adventists in the US. The SDA church is fairly large at about 22 million members, and they’ve always promoted vegetarianism, meaning meat free diet with animal products.

It's not a strictly defined term, in the UK people generally mean lacto-ovo-vegetarian by it (they will eat eggs and milk) but many combinations are possible and what's most common varies geographically - in India for example it would generate taken to mean lacto-vegetarian (milk, no eggs).

Wikipedia has a nice table: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism#Varieties