Yes, originally (many centuries ago, I can't remember when but it doesn't matter for the purpose of this discussion) the term 'ale' referred to unhopped beer, and 'beer' was hopped. The latter was an idea brought across to Britain from the continent, that was adopted in Britain because the hops' preservative properties gave the ale a longer shelf life.

But gradually the distinction between ale and beer was lost, and the two terms came to mean the same thing (partly because hardly any beer was made unhopped after a while, once hopping of beer in the UK became widespread and people had acquired the taste).

As we discussed higher up this thread, Ron, I was trying to explain that although the two terms mean the same thing literally, in today's everyday usage in the UK at least, it seems that 'beer' is a more generic term that can be used to cover any type of beer, whether it's lager, stout, bitter, draught [draft] or bottled, etc.

Whereas 'ale' has a more limited usage. For example, I've never heard anyone call a keg lager an 'ale' - yes, you could, but no-one does. I'm talking about the usage of the words, not their dictionary definitions.

I didn't say anything about 'ale' being 'better' than 'beer', and I can't see that Dave did. I agree with you that to claim so that would be incorrect. I don't know where you got that impression from, Ron, but I don't believe most people here (us 'Brits') believe that at all, i.e. that something called 'ale' is better than something called 'beer'.

You seem to have inferred that without it having been said, unless I missed something?