The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
admin
/ad?min'/, n.
Short for ?administrator?; very commonly used in speech or on-line to refer
to the systems person in charge on a computer. Common constructions on this
include sysadmin and site admin (emphasizing the administrator's role as a
site contact for email and news) or newsadmin (focusing specifically on
news). Compare postmaster, sysop, system mangler.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
system administration
admin
sysadmin
system administrator
Activities performed by a system administrator (or
"admin", "sysadmin", "site admin") such as monitoring security
configuration, managing allocation of user names and
passwords, monitoring disk space and other resource use,
performing backups, and setting up new hardware and
software.
system administrators often also help users, though in a large
organisation this may be a separate job.
Compare postmaster, sysop, system management, systems
programmer.
[Other tasks?]
(1999-05-02)