Data - LIAS Glossary

This is a test version of the LIAS Glossary. Many definitions presented here are still in need of revision! Criticism as well as collaboration is welcome!

data (noun, no singular; derived from the Latin: sl. datum, pl. data) – a sum of recorded values. Like people or news, the English word data is one of the few words that are frequently used both as plural and as singular. The term is originally derived from the Latin word datum, meaning "something given". Occasionally scientists refer to a singular value as datum, especially if that particular value is used as a reference point for calibration (e. g., the Greenwich 0° meridian, the absolute zero of the Kelvin temperature scale, or the relative zero of the Celsius temperature scale). Even though the term data always refers to several, separately recorded values, it becomes more and more customary to regard these values as a singular mass of information, therefore using data as a singular. Thus, sentences like these data do not support or reject our original hypothesis are also sometimes expressed as the data is inconclusive.

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