Quote Originally Posted by Sean Mirrsen View Post
Because non-hot spice is just altering/enhancing flavor and taste, and "hot" already has a relevant meaning for food. Which I think just leads to people having to guess from context and ask for clarification like "spicy as in hot?" or "hot as in spicy?" when it's unclear. Basically the reason is English is dumb. :P
English is a kitchen sink of a language - for better or for worse. That being said, words with ill defined meanings exist in other languages as well. It is kind of inevitable as there has to be a finite set of words (so we can remember and recall them when needed) and the list of possible meanings to convey with them is likely infinite. So words need to have a range of meanings.