14

The English abbreviation OP for the term Original Poster is widely used over the internet. Do the abbreviation and/or the term have widely used equivalents in Spanish?

Gonzalo Medina
  • 6,474
  • 3
  • 35
  • 46
  • Interesting question. I doubt it though.... – Jose Luis Dec 06 '11 at 16:35
  • 3
    There must be plenty of "forum" software localized into or at least used by Spanish speakers though... – hippietrail Dec 06 '11 at 16:40
  • 2
    Two issues here: internet usage is more recent in Spanish speaking territories and less intense. Also, keep in mind that Spanish is a language a lot less "acronym-friendly" than English. They are not forbidden, but they take a lot more time to get accepted (v.g., there are no acronyms equivalents to CEO, CTO, etc). – SJuan76 Dec 06 '11 at 22:39
  • If you search for "posteador original" in Google, there are 15.400 results. But "posteador" is not an official Spanish word, but there are some people who use it. I've never seen any other acronym but the English one "OP". – Javi Dec 06 '11 at 23:55
  • 1
    I didn't realize "OP" was even widely used, except on SE sites. – Flimzy Dec 07 '11 at 02:40
  • @SJuan76 "internet usage is more recent in Spanish speaking territories"? Don't agree at all. There have been forums in Spanish since 10+ years ago, and even 10 sounds conservative. Also, I see no reason to translate acronyms. They should stay in the language they were first coined. – silverCORE Dec 07 '11 at 06:13
  • 1
    @silverCORE The fact that they exist a long time ago doesn't mean they can be compared in intensity of usage to English ones. – Jose Luis Dec 07 '11 at 10:00
  • @Flimzy: It's definitely common, I've seen it on several other forums. – jrdioko Dec 09 '11 at 04:32
  • @jrdioko: I just saw (or at least noticed) it for the first time today on http://forums.tdiclub.com/. – Flimzy Dec 10 '11 at 06:21

3 Answers3

5

I don't think there really is an accurate translation.

Of course you could literally translate Original Poster in various different ways, the point of OP is to make a very short abbreviation that is very easily recognizable.

So, given that there is no universal set for Spanish, any literal translation you choose will be ok but you won't be able to shorten it.

If it was me, if the site has a relatively internet active community, I would use OP, and explain if it is not clear.

Trufa
  • 166
  • 3
2

Creador del hilo is a correct, quickly understandable (as in no-brainer - which is good!) and widely used translation of original poster.

deprecated
  • 975
  • 8
  • 8
0

I would simply use OP and be done with it. Thanks to the Academies in charge of its standardization, the official Spanish language often evolves more slowly than the needs of its speakers, so quite often you will end up having to choose between deviating from standard Spanish and not being able to say what you want to say.

isekaijin
  • 527
  • 2
  • 9