Acronym
What does ETA mean?
Estimated time of arrival: when you get there on a map — and, on a post, the passage added later (edited to add).
Definition
On a map and in a ride app, ETA is the clock: estimated time of arrival, when you get there. Logistics and aviation English that GPS glued to the screen. Traffic moves the number; the gesture is the same as the flight sheet.
The same three letters, on a post, mark something else. ETA: on Reddit usually opens the passage added later — edited to add — without pretending the text was born that way. The reader sees the amendment; the writer does not erase what was already there.
Anyone searching the letters in Spanish also lands in another century. There ETA names the Basque organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (1959–2018): another world, the same order.
Origin
Estimated time of arrival already shows up in military and aviation English: Etymonline points to 1939. Edited to add is another use of the same letters, an amendment in the post common on Reddit and 2000s forums, marked so the reader sees what was born later.
History
The clock left radio and logistics and entered GPS and the ride app, where ETA is still when you arrive. On 2000s forums and Reddit the amendment took the same coat: ETA: opens the paragraph that was born later. In Spanish the letters were already taken by the Basque organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (1959–2018), another century stuck to the same spelling.
How it emerged
Arrival needed three letters on a flight sheet. Amending a post needed the same three on a forum; the map and Reddit took the same coat.
Usage examples
ETA 6 p.m., bad traffic.
ETA: the rumour was false; I left the post up.
Translations
- pt ETA
- en ETA
- es ETA
Synonyms
- estimated arrival
- edited to add
- Euskadi Ta Askatasuna
Acronyms
- ETA