you're certainly right about one thing, this is silliness.
webster certainly never contemplated this form of 'peer' so
it is useless to quote him. i agree with peter, in this
form 'peer' means a network of equal or similar size. in
the current state of technology, peer to me means capable
of asymmetry.
i'm sure the rest of nanog will play a large role in defining
this term 'peer' in the coming months, native english speakers
and not.
Jeff Young
young@mci.net