Is the Proper Spelling Colocation, or Collocation?

If you are pondering the question "Is the Proper Spelling Colocation, or Collocation?", you are not alone. The question has frustrated ISPs' lawyers and marketers, and baffled people interested in linguistics. A few individuals are on record going even further, wondering "Is the Proper Spelling Colocation, or Collocation, or Co-location?." The reality is that any spelling is correct, though the meaning varies by spelling.

Colocation, or co-location, is derived from the French term colocataire, which means renting a house (or flat) with another tenant (flatmate, housemate, co-tenant). It also means two groups or items (e.g. military teams, vehicles, tools) that share, or are designed to share, the same site, or when one company places equipment in another company's facilities. Server Colocation, Colocation Services, and Colocation Facility mean the use of datacentre space by private clients to host their servers.

Collocation is an English noun, of Latin origin, dating back to 1605, meaning the act or result of placing or arranging together. To collocate means to set or place together side by side, arrange in the proper order. Collocation also means the conjoining, or combining of words or phrases in ways that are hard to guess, such as "hard frost" or "new world".

In web hosting context, colocation is the most appropriate spelling, though it could be said the collocation, placing side by side, also fits. For usage statistics , see Sune Christensen.