Okay. My personal answer is in favor of the "too pedantic" explanation.
It may be "wrong" given what we typically use the terms to mean, but, language-wise, outside of traditional application, I believe it to be correct.
We call 3-phase electricity "3 phase" because the three hots are different phases, 120 degrees apart. We automatically assume them to be 120°, and in terms of electrical distribution they're pretty much guaranteed to be, but that is *not* part of the definition, the English definition that is, of either "three" or "phase." The phrase "three-phase," purely in English, does not specify what phases they are, only that there are three of them.
The two hots in a 240V single-phase center-tapped service are... essentially 180 degrees away from each other. They weren't generated that way, for sure, and you could never really call the primary side of the pole transformer "two phase," but after that, with reference to ground/neutral, we do, in fact, see two hots that appear at different phases.
"Two phase" with regards to electrical distribution is likely to imply a 90° separation, but "two phase" taken purely in English could very well, and accurately, describe the services we have here in the US...
... so... misuse of the term may very well indicate to me that whoever I'm talking to doesn't have much (or any) background in electrical distribution, and I may thus question the rest of whatever they are saying, but no, it doesn't bother me any.
... one that DOES bug me though... I work with some people who are entirely on the electronics repair side of things -- they're quite adept at getting the inner workings of appliances to do what they are supposed to, but I'm so sick of hearing 110, 115, 117, 125, 130, 210, 220, and 230. I know there is some tolerance, and I could even be coaxed into accepting some of these "incorrect" voltages if the people spouting them wouldn't ALSO ask me things like, "is this 110 or 210?" . . . If I agree to accept your assertion that your line voltage is 110, then twice it better darn well be 220. If you've got 210, then one leg must be 105, which is just absurd. On this one I try to convince myself they're rounding up from 208, but then I hear 120 and 220 and steam starts coming out of my ears.
