Don't use "means" when you mean "translates as"

I'm trying to cultivate a new habit, and the title is it. Everytime I find myself writing something like, "the word ὑπόστασις means "blah de blah blah'", I stop and rewrite it to something more like, "the word ὑπόστασις translates as 'blah' or 'blech'".

The reason is that 'means' in these cases tends to perpetuate an implicit approach to language that treats it as mere code or cipher, as if other languages really encode 'meaning' that is genuine in English. Which is patently false. ὑπόστασις doesn't mean "subsistence" or "person" or "being".

On this issue I'm not trying to be some kind of hardline "no, you can never say X in one language 'means' Y in another", but I do think it would serve our writing better to avoid the construction because of its implicit connotations.

This is particularly a problem with Biblical Exegetes and their tendency to say, "Ah, yes, the Greek word 'means'...English." Let's at least start killing that.