hosting

Word family

• host
  nounB1
• host
  verbB1
• hostess
  nounB2
• hospitality
  nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

In the technology world, 'hosting' is the general business of keeping someone's online files on a powerful computer that the public can reach. 'Web hosting' is the same idea but limited to websites, and people often use the two terms as if they meant exactly the same thing. 'Cloud computing' is broader: it covers hosting but also includes processing, databases, and software run over the internet, so a 'cloud computing' contract usually does much more than store pages. 'Server space' is the informal, almost physical-sounding way to talk about the storage piece alone, and you mostly hear it from small users — for example, 'I only need a tiny bit of server space for my photos' sounds natural, while 'I only need a tiny bit of hosting' sounds odd. Pick 'hosting' for the service, 'server space' for the room it sits in.

Common collocations

Etymology

'Hosting' is the -ing form of the verb 'host', which came into English in the 1300s from Old French 'hoste', meaning 'guest' or 'someone who entertains guests'. That French word goes back to Latin 'hospitem', the source of related English words like 'hospital', 'hospitality', and 'hotel'. For most of its history, 'hosting' meant simply 'the act of receiving guests'. The computer meaning — keeping a website on a server for others to reach — grew out of the 1990s, when engineers borrowed the everyday image of one machine 'welcoming' visitors from many others.