Isn't the word "banner" too presentational and none-semantic?

Hey all,

How are you today?

There is one thing about ARIA that confused me a lot. It's the naming of
the role "banner".

When using id and class on elements, we were told to prevent using
none-semantic names such as "left-column", "small-box", "right-bar", ...
etc because they contradict the concept "separating presentation from
content".

But look at the word "banner", it is completely a none-semantic name, isn't
it? By naming an element "banner", we are consider its "shape" instead of
its use and meaning. Besides, some people also call advertisement boxes
"banners". So the word "banner" itself isn't really meaningful.

Comparing with the role "contentinfo" which is meaningfully named, why was
the inventor wanted to name the site header "banner" instead of a more
meaningful name like "contenthead" or "masthead"?


Sincerely,
Ian Yang
Meaningful and Semantic HTML lover  |  Front-end developer