At the end of my geotech class the Prof put up a joke slide that said something along the lines of "now you should know the difference between soil and dirt". We all looked at each other because no one knew. He didn't teach us that. He was also a shitty Prof.
In all seriousness it was only a few weeks ago that I heard about a teacher in Bangladesh that did actually shoot one of his students in the leg. He apparently always brought a loaded gun into class with him in his bag.
Most of the signs meaning that I see say "Clean fill for sale" meaning fill dirt. They know big AG isn't one to fuck with.
Dirt can be clean if its not polluted with fuel oil or other industrial contaminants. The last thing you want to put on your yard for ground leveling is a truckload of whatever earth is coming out of the closest EPA superfund site.
I was watching Top Chef the other day and one of the contestants kept talking about the "chocolate soil" he was making as part of his dish. He must have repeated that phrase "chocolate soil" at least 10 times because he thought it was really clever I guess. All it did was remind me that any time someone uses the word "soil" in the context of food all I can think of is poop. Like a soiled diaper or something.
It ended up really grossing me out
I don't know why they wouldn't just call it something else...