Imagine you are at some large governmental function, and are asked if you would like to meet the ‘secretary’. Armed only with that information, as you are taken across the room perhaps you idly assume the person you are about to meet will have certain office skills, and a relatively passive working nature. You may even make an inappropriate assumption about the secretary's gender. When you then learn that this same person is actually Secretary of State, you may want to revise some of your assumptions. You may also regret the imprecision of language – that one term can be expected to cover such a broad remit: but would you hold the individual responsible for the vagaries of his or her job title?

If a single term can mean two things at the same time and place, we should hardly be surprised that historically it can cover an even broader range of options. This self-evident (but easily forgotten) truth has already been aired in this book. Now, though, we need to think about it with reference to the ‘counter-tenor’ and its companion terms.