Proprietor or Owner of a Website

[Pete Noire]

Are "proprietor" and "owner" equivalent in the case of a website?

 

[Eckaslike]

To me, they always mean the same thing, whatever the context. They both mean "owner".

"Proprietor" came into English via Old French, in the Middle English period.

"Owner" stems directly from Old English.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Could 'proprietor' be used only if it is a commercial website?

 

[Eckaslike]

I think you are probably right Matthew. To me, it always implies personal ownership, so you will hear of a shop, pub, website or business proprietor, but I've never heard of a government being referred to as the proprietor of a state website.

It is very closely related to the word "property" (again from Old French into Middle English), referring to the ownership of land, buildings and business.

I therefore think that personal ownership is probably inherent in the English sense of the modern word.

 

[Pete Noire]

Many thanks.

 

[emsr2d2]

There is no need to write a new post to say "Thank you". Simply click on the "Thank" button in the bottom left-hand corner of any post you find useful.

 

[Tdol]

According to Google, owner is more commonly used:

"website owner" 7,630,000 results
"website proprietor" 99,600 results

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think this is possibly because many websites are not commercial, but I am not a teacher.

 

[Eckaslike]

It might be the case Matthew, but I have a feeling it may be to do with several factors.

One reason might be to do with the words themselves. My feeling is that for BrE speakers anyway, "owner" is a more instinctive term to use than "proprietor", which is longer, has more syllables, and is slightly harder to pronounce. Since the two words mean exactly the same thing in English [update: I mean in the context of this topic thread, where people have a choice between the two words], why would people choose the longer word when a shorter, simpler one, will do instead.

 

[tedmc]

"Proprietor" is used to refer to an owner of a business or property whereas "owner" is general, covering just about everything.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/proprietor

 

[Tdol]

I think this is possibly because many websites are not commercial, but I am not a teacher.

It could also be a matter of collocation- newspaper proprietor, for instance, collocates naturally to me and owner works better with websites, without considering whether a site is commercial or not.