Wiggy, I thought my statement
I know which way it generally points so use the term loosely
should have been clear enough. Once again the imprecision of the written language? The only text book I have to hand is Ira H. Abbott and Albert E. Von Doenhoff and they define as follows,
Lift is defined as the component of force acting in the plane of symmetry in a direction perpendicular to the line of flight
When talking of the properties of aerofoils we talk of "lift-curve slopes, lift distributions, section lift coefficients, design lift coefficients, maximum lift". The only time "force" is mentioned is to acknowledge that lift is but one of the forces acting on an aerofoil. Am interested in your comments.