Q:

Modes of the "major scale" or modes of the "diatonic scale"?

I'm doing some studying and I think I have a solid grasp on how the diatonic scale was formed, and how it naturally has 7 modes depending on which note you declare to be the tonic.
However, all over Wikipedia I see references to "Modes of the Major scale" which makes no sense to me, as "major" is already a mode, the Ionian mode.
The way I see it, there are 7 modes of the diatonic scale, which include Ionian (Major) and Aeolian (Minor), and the rest. It doesn't make sense to talk about "Modes of the major scale". 
Yet here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_scale
You can see in the chart that they list "Aeolian" (Minor) as a "Mode of the major scale", which is completely silly.
Am I missing something important here? Does it make sense to talk about modes of the major scale, as opposed to modes of the diatonic scale?
Thanks.

A:

Diatonic means related to the seven notes we call a major or minor scale. These notes all have intervals between them of a tone or a semitone. Except the harmonic minor, possessing an augmented second. If you are considering 'diatonic' to equate to 'major', that's where you stumbled ! Because there are not 7 modes, but 21. (We can't count chromatics, pentatonics, whole tone, blues scales as diatonic).
Yes, of the 'major scale' there is a total of seven modes related to it. The most used these days is the ubiquitous major scale.
They probably are called modes of the major scale because modes of the minor scale exist also. No, obviously not the Aeolian mode/scale - as it has the same notes as the parent major. But - the notes from the harmonic and melodic scales also will have their own diatonic rooted modes, all of them different from those of the major, which just happens to be known as the Ionian mode as well.
So, to summarise, they need to be called modes of something specific, and the reference or datum point, or parent, if you like, is the basic, best known, most used major scale. It needs a name, too, so is christened Ionian.
As an afterthought, why do you find Aeolian silly as a mode? It happens to be one of the scales/keys that is diatonic, so has as much right and reason to be included in that family. Is it because it's a minor mode? But so is Dorian and Phrygian.

