If you were born with powers via the X-gene, you're a mutant. If you were born a baseline human who got powers via a foreign element, you're a mutate.

Or, for the longest time, that's what I thought. However, I've been wondering if this terminology is actually used in-universe.

All the wiki sites will refer to people like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Wasp, the Hulk, Black Panther and so on as "human mutate", and I never questioned it before. However, I was talking to someone on another site and this subject came up. He said he never heard the term "mutate" in a Marvel comic, and he's been a fan for decades. He's played RPGs where they're referred to as "altered humans".

And the more I think about it, I've never seen the term within a comic I've read either. I am aware of the Savage Land Mutates, but that's something completely different. Mutate here is used as a general term for superpowered beings that aren't mutants, or aliens, inhumans, asgardians, magic or whatever.

The distinction between mutant and mutate is important, given the heavy amounts of discrimination the former receive that the latter are usually spared from. In fact, if I've seen cases where if a mutate is feared and hated, it's assumed they must be a mutant. It doesn't make sense, but then, neither does real world racism. That was the point.

So, is mutate in this context ever used in-universe? Or it is strictly an out-of-universe term meant for convenience? Just curious.