Breakfast Topic: Toons have character

I never really thought about this before, but someone started a thread on the General forums decrying a term that I use every day. They stated that everyone should quit using the term "toon" and instead use "character" -- or as Drysc commented, "char" for short. Something I will admit to being doubly guilty of, as I realized that I use both interchangeably.

I don't honestly know where i picked up "toon." I am pretty sure that I started using it back when I was playing EverQuest, but I can't say that for certain. I know it was used heavily in City of Heroes, as everyone thought of their characters as being comic book creations by and large. I didn't even notice until the post, but I actually tend to use both terms. I'll say "toonhop" when I'm switching between characters. On the other hand, I also say "I'm going to play this character" if I'm indicating one of my characters as being the preferred one for that run/group/etc. I've also said that I would "jump to another toon" as well. Considering the uproar, I should probably just say "charhop" when I'm switching between characters, but somehow it just doesn't flow as well as "toonhop" does. And really, since I'm just saying that to save my friends the trouble of doing a bunch of "goodbye" "welcome back" typing, does it matter?

So what do you prefer? Character or Toon? And where did you pick your terminology up? Does either term drive you bonkers? Personally, neither one offends me, and nobody's ever asked me to stop using either term. Go figure!