estatus

Estatus is a noun used in Spanish and Portuguese to denote status, standing, or current condition of a person, object, or situation. It is commonly employed to describe social position (estatus social), professional rank (estatus laboral), or legal and administrative states, such as estatus migratorio (immigration status) or estatus legal de una entidad. In information systems and business language, estatus functions as a field label for the state of an item or process, with values such as activo (active) and inactivo (inactive).

Etymology: Estatus derives from Latin status and spread through the Romance languages, aligning with cognates such as English status. In Spanish, its use emphasizes relative standing or formal condition within a system, rather than mere state.

Usage and variation: While estatus is standard in contemporary Spanish and is also used in Portuguese, speakers sometimes prefer estado or condición in everyday language. In English-language contexts, estatus is rare and usually appears in bilingual materials or as part of a proper noun; the Latin phrase status quo remains the more common way to refer to current conditions.