[Anfitrión vs. huésped: an analysis of viral host terminology in Spanish scientific literature and a proposal for standardization].

Authors

Mario E Lozano, Antonio Tenorio Matanzo, Delia Enría, Juan Arbiza

Published in

Medicina. Volume 86. Issue 4. Pages 970-976.

Abstract

The Spanish translation of the term "host" in virology lacks standardization, leading to ambiguity. This study quantitatively analyzes the frequency of use of candidate terms -huésped, hospedador, hospedero and anfitrión- in three major bibliographic databases (SciELO, Dialnet and Google Scholar). The counts show a high frequency of "huésped" in SciELO and greater terminological diversity in Dialnet and Google Scholar; constructs such as "interacción virus-anfitrión" appear with notable presence in theses and reviews. We propose adopting "anfitrión" as the preferred term due to its semantic precision, popular acceptance, and better suitability for dissemination as the optimal term for translating "host" in virology into Spanish; maintaining "hospedador/hospedante/hospedero" as technical synonyms and relegating the word "huésped" exclusively to refer to the guest pathogen. Although this article focuses on this very useful word for the field of microbiology and epidemiology in general, the use of words derived from semantic calques can hinder the accuracy of texts written in Spanish. Therefore, we recommend the creation of a glossary agreed upon by scientific societies and the inclusion of editorial guidelines to facilitate the terminological transition.

PMID:
42604507
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Aug 2026.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.