But that just serves to emphasis the (my?) confusion both with the naming and the P6 differentiation, which still leave me perplexed.

It's perfectly simple.

We have Perl 6 traits, which are different from Self traits, both of which are different from Xerox Star traits, all three of which are different from the Traits described in traits paper - which Perl 6 will call roles. Except roles have state with the traits paper Traits don't.

Traits (that is Perl 6 traits, not the trait paper traits, Self traits or Xerox Star traits) are roles applied to declared items like classes and containers. Unless they are applied at runtime in which case they are called properties.

Confused? You won't be after the next episode of... Soap!

;-) * 0.5

(Okay, I admit it, I've still not found the time to more than skim A12 so I may have got some of the above wrong, and there is probably a nice simple structure in there that's not managed to find its way into my head yet)