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In CSS, there is a fundamental difference between :pseudo-classes and ::pseudo-elements. The term "pseudo-selector" doesn't exist in any official W3C specification, and is completely ambiguous between the two. (I'm aware that the CSS3 spec introduces the double-colon notation for pseudo-elements to resolve the ambiguity between the two, but the spec states that it isn't enforced for CSS1 and 2 pseudo-elements, and we have to stick with single colons for a reason.)

I know there are some libraries and implementations out there that call such selectors of their own "pseudo-selectors", but my question here is specific to questions about CSS (and quite possibly jQuery, whose selector engine Sizzle is based heavily on CSS selectors anyway, even though it's a library in itself).

May I retag and edit questions with the tag? The and tags already exist anyway. I realize this is another one of those things that I'm really picky about, but as I mentioned there's an important fundamental difference between the two, and there is almost no scenario that could cover both entities categorically, so I believe that it's good to clarify this distinction.

Or is there such a scenario...?

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up vote 2 down vote accepted

Just found an example of when using the term "pseudo-selector" can cause confusion: Get :first-letter of :hover element with CSS (read the question's comments)

Since nobody's objected via comments, answers or even downvotes, I'll go on ahead and retag.

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... aaaaand I'm done. –  BoltClock's a Unicorn Nov 8 '11 at 7:43
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