Accurate, short and simple

The debate over the proper name for the sands is a longstanding one. Here is an early contribution from 1936:

Attention is directed to the fact that the title of this paper employs the words “Oil Sands” instead of the most customarily used term “Bituminous Sands”; and this has been done quite deliberately, with all due respect to use of the term “Bituminous” in the literature and by commentators describing the unique deposits in the Athabaska region of Northern Alberta.

The selection of the word “Oil” instead of “Bitumen” is made for the following reasons: The deposits under discussion have been widely referred

to as “Tar Sands”, “Asphalt Sands”, “Bituminous Sands” and “Oil Sands” more or less indiscriminately; and the organic materials which are included therein have been referred to as “Tar”, “Asphalt”, “Bitumen” and “Oil”. From a technical standpoint, the word “Tar” should be used strictly to define one of the distillates obtained by the destructive distillation of organic substances and bituminous minerals, the most common of which are wood, peat, lignite, coal, bituminous shale and bone. In the opinion of the writers, tar should not be used to define a natural substance such as that in the Athabaska Sands.

The organic material in the Athabaska Sands contains […] a large percentage of liquid hydrocarbons, and therefore the writers believe that it is not accurately described by the term “Asphalt”, which is usually used to describe semi-solid or hard hydrocarbons.

The term “Bitumen” is broad enough to cover the Athabaska material with accuracy and clearness, and is freely used. Now, the only objection to its use is found in the fact that the term “Bitumen” is too broad to strictly define such a natural substance as that under discussion. For example, the word “Bituminous” is used to designate or define collectively a class of substances consisting of hydrocarbons and products derived from them by alteration, occurring associated together in nature; and they may be

gaseous, liquid or solid, frequently all of which three forms of physical modifications may be found admixed in the same crude material.

The organic material in the Northern Alberta Sands is in fact a heavy oil, as the term is generally used, and the words “Oil Sands” and “Oil” have been determined upon for some time past by the Abasand Company for its use and now are used for this paper as the term most accurately conveying the idea of this virgin material, as well as being the shortest and simplest terms available.

Quoted from “The Commercial Utilization of the Oil Sands of Northern Alberta” by J. A. Smith and J. M. McClave.