# What is a forer@



## bdaisy

i have a question about what a "forer@" is. I know I'm probably retarded because of this, and really late, but I truly have no idea.  Can someone tell me?


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## cuchuflete

Hi bdaisy,

Forera, forero, forer@  are WordReference jargon for forum member.  There is a thread in the Spanish Resources/recursos sub-forum that records the very unofficial discussion that led to the adoption of the term, back when there were about thirty or forty active members.  We began to use them consistently, and they have stuck.

ciao,
cuchuflete


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## papillon

Hi bdaisy,
forer@ is akin to forer*o/a*, and is the gender-neutral term. **


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## danielfranco

It's a convenient short-cut to avoid many _faux-pas _in referring to a forum member when it is not evident what is their sex

 [Gasp! I said "sex" instead of "gender"...]

or when they have asked you to keep it private if you happen to know!!


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## maxiogee

The earlier responses have told you where the word comes from, but what a forer@ *is* is something else - a forer@ is someone who enters fully into the spirit behind WordReference - a helpful and considerate person with an interest in words and language who gives as well as takes here.
If the forum was just a place where people defined words and tranlsated strange idioms into other langauges it would be a very cold and unwelcoming place.
A forer@ is wise and petty, generous and demanding, learned and still curious - a forer@, overall, is one who rarely tells another that they are 'wrong' in their use of a word or phrase, preferring to say the other is 'using a lesser-known form' or 'a local variant'.


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## danielfranco

Thanks for the explanation, maxiogee. I didn't know.


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## Etcetera

maxiogee said:


> The earlier responses have told you where the word comes from, but what a forer@ *is* is something else - a forer@ is someone who enters fully into the spirit behind WordReference - a helpful and considerate person with an interest in words and language who gives as well as takes here.
> If the forum was just a place where people defined words and tranlsated strange idioms into other langauges it would be a very cold and unwelcoming place.
> A forer@ is wise and petty, generous and demanding, learned and still curious - a forer@, overall, is one who rarely tells another that they are 'wrong' in their use of a word or phrase, preferring to say the other is 'using a lesser-known form' or 'a local variant'.



Excellent, Tony!


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## cheshire

Hi. Could you tell me which the plural form of forer@ should be, forer@ or forer@s?


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## maxiogee

It's probably a latinate forer@e  - but I've seen forer@s a lot.


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## cheshire

> but I've seen forer@s a lot.


Me too. cuchuflete is using forer@ for plural, though. 





> It's probably a latinate forer@e


messages forer@rum? messages foreris?


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## Etcetera

I use forer@s. 
But I like Maxiogee's suggestion. Maybe I should make use of it?..


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## maxiogee

Would the mass noun for a group of forer@s be a 'Rocher'?


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## Cecilio

I normally use "foreros" for the plural when referring to the whole community of WR-forum users. If I'm talking about a group of female WR-members, I would say "foreras". These are the general rules in Spanish, and I apply them also when I use the word "forero" in English. But obviously there's some controversy about this issue. I personally dislike these "@" endings, they look a bit too artificial.


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## maxiogee

Cecilio said:


> I normally use "foreros" for the plural when referring to the whole community of WR-forum users. If I'm talking about a group of female WR-members, I would say "foreras". These are the general rules in Spanish, and I apply them also when I use the word "forero" in English. But obviously there's some controversy about this issue. I personally dislike these "@" endings, they look a bit too artificial.



Cecilio,
I don't know if you are a forera or a forero.
My paternal grandmother was named Cecilia - and Cecil is the male version. Then there are many people here whose username doesn't even offer a vague hint at their gender.
Some of us _need_ to use forer@.


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## Cecilio

maxiogee said:


> Cecilio,
> I don't know if you are a forera or a forero.
> My paternal grandmother was named Cecilia - and Cecil is the male version. Then there are many people here whose username doesn't even offer a vague hint at their gender.
> Some of us _need_ to use forer@.



You can also use "forero/a".

When I'm writing in Spanish about a WR-member and I don't know the gender of this person, I normally use this ending. For example, if I want to say: "Are you sure?", there is no problem in English, but in Spanish, as in many other languages, you have to use a gender-determined word. I would write something like this: "¿Estás seguro/a?".


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## cuchuflete

Not knowing whether "@" is more or less artificial and contrived than "a/o" or "o/a", I default to the one that requires the fewest keystrokes.  The difference is so slight--a single keystroke with the hardware I have to work with--that it doesn't matter much to me.  

The nice thing about forero, and its other forms, is that foreros can do almost anything they please with it and be easily understood.


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## Cecilio

cuchuflete said:


> Not knowing whether "@" is more or less artificial and contrived than "a/o" or "o/a", I default to the one that requires the fewest keystrokes.  The difference is so slight--a single keystroke with the hardware I have to work with--that it doesn't matter much to me.



That's perfectly Ok, but remember that the word "forero", etc., has a clear Spanish origin and morphology, which means that, for speakers of Spanish, the matter is not so simple. I feel the need to adapt this "forero" word to the Spanish usage. And I still find "@" rather odd, in comparison with "o/a".


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## Bienvenidos

Cecilio said:


> That's perfectly Ok, but remember that the word "forero", etc., has a clear Spanish origin and morphology, which means that, for speakers of Spanish, the matter is not so simple. I feel the need to adapt this "forero" word to the Spanish usage. And I still find "@" rather odd, in comparison with "o/a".



Estoy de acuerdo con todo lo que dijiste.  Siempre escribo "forero/a." Así es la manera más española de hacerlo.


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