It's really interesting how so many people can't just shrug, maybe giggle lightly, and move on; instead, they get all huffy & puffy about something they want to dismiss as trivial or ludicrous. Why is that? All that slipperiness of meaning make you a little nervous?
[WS:] I think that is what constitutes philosophical idealism - a belief that words and concepts weigh upon reality, so debating these words and concept has an effect of changing that reality itself. Philosophical realists or materialists have no such a belief, and thus they treat words as instruments: use them as needed, dismiss them if not needed.
This reminds me of an old story about a man asking his atheist father whether he should marry the woman he loves, since she insists on having a wedding in a church. "Of course you should marry her in a church, if that is what she wants" replied the father, "you do not believe that there is anything real in this church mumbo jumbo."
Wojtek