Hell I'd be happy if it were used to describe sequences with more than just two values. I hear it constantly used in comparisons of just two quantities where the intended meaning is just "a lot more".
Yes, this gets to me too. You can fit any sequence of n points with a curve described by a polynomial of n-1 degree. therefore, you need at least 4 points to know that the curve is not cubic, and an infinite number to know that it is exponential (though you can usually surmise as much sooner, because many natural phenomena are exponential or logarithmic).
