Science Memes

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Ackchuallly (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 98 points 6 months ago (7 children)

As Wiktionary puts it:

The word data is more often used as an uncountable noun with a singular verb than as a plural noun with singular datum.

It's like "hair". You can hold a single 'hair', you can also hold three hairs. But if you're looking at an entire mane, you ain't counting, so it's referred to as "hair" again.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And the word “data” is only one word, so “data is plural”

[–] Semjaza 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Maybe I'm whooshed, but you understand the concept of uncountable nouns, right?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The noun I’m referring to is the word “data” not the data themselves. “Data data” is 2 words, “data” is one word. The word (singular) “data” is plural

[–] Semjaza 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In Latin, sure. But the word "datum" isn't a part of English, so we have instead the uncountable noun "data" which is derived from the Latin.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Datum is indeed a word in English. Singular point of information.

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