A Spanish Dilemma: How to Translate Computer
Three words are used to translate computer into Spanish. Spain uses “ordenador” (IPA: /oɾðeˈnaðoɾ/), probably modelled on the French “ordinateur”, meaning something like a “sorting machine”. Most of Latin America uses either “computadora” (feminine, IPA: /kompʊtaˈðoɾa/) or “computador” (masculine), modelled on the English and meaning “calculating machine”.
The French word “ordinateur”, was coined in 1955 by the French branch of IBM. It is said that François Girard, the head of the advertising department at IBM France, felt that the English word computer was too similar to “calculatrice” (calculator) and wanted to find a more suitable name for « la nouvelle machine électronique destinée au traitement de l’information » (the new electronic machine intended for information processing). He consulted a Humanities Professor who suggested “ordinatrice électronique”, based on the French word, “ordonnateur” — someone who puts things in order. However, IBM settled on “ordinateur” as it was considered less cumbersome!
The English word “computer” was used in the early 20th century to describe people whose job was to carry out calculations, in the days before machines could do it for them. Then along came “electronic computers” to replace them. Likewise, the word “computadora” comes from the verb “computar” (IPA: /kompuˈtaɾ/), which means “to compute” or “to calculate”.
When household computers were still an expensive novelty, most families had just one desktop computer, referred to as “ordenador de sobremesa” (desktop computer) in European Spanish or “computadora de escritorio” in Latin America, to share among everyone.
Today, almost everyone has their own laptop, which is also called a laptop in Spanish. Alternatively you can call it a “portátil”, which is the short form of “ordenador / computadora portátil”.
A quick Google search gives the following relative usage:
- “el ordenador” — 7 million hits
- “el computador” — 0.5 million hits
- “la computadora” — 4 million hits
This is quite a dilemma when translating into “universal” or “neutral” Spanish, i.e. Spanish which should feel as natural as possible to the target audience of the translation. If creating region-specific documents, then of course we translate computer as “ordenador” for Spain and “computadora” for Mexico, South and Central America, but what do you use when you want to satisfy everybody?
Related topic: European vs Latin American Spanish
Usage: a Translation Example
The other day we had to translate computer room, which could be
- “sala de ordenadores” — 105 thousand hits
- “sala de computadoras” — 19 thousand hits
- “sala de cómputo” — 96 thousand hits
Sometimes it’s best to avoid the problem by thinking out of the box. We eventually came up with “sala de informática” (literally, “computer science room”) which not only satisfies all Spanish speakers but got almost 600 thousand Google hits.
