datum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin datum (“that which is given, a present”),^[2][3][4] the noun use of the neuter past participle of dō (“to give”),^[2][3][5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *dō- (“to give”),^[3][7] the base of Ancient Greek δίδωμι (dídōmi, “I give”).^[2] Its Latin plural gave English data.^[2][7][6] Compare German Datum, a piece of information, from 1631.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An item of numerical information, chiefly in the plural: 1630, in a table in Batten's Most Easie Way Finding Sunnes Amplitude.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart start with 1646, the plural data in Hammond's sense of something granted.^[4][8][2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the singular only to the mid 18th century.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English mostly in the plural, and it is data that has the later history, including the use as a mass noun and in computing.^[2] The singular kept the older, more exact sense of a thing given or granted, the premise from which reasoning starts.^[2][4] In philosophy, from 1832, it became anything directly presented to the mind or senses, as in datum of consciousness and sense datum.^[2] From 1795 surveyors used it for a line or point taken as the basis for measurement,^[2] as in datum line.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1630 – an item of numerical information, chiefly in the plural.^[2]
• 1646 – something given or assumed as a basis for reasoning.^[2][4][8]
• 1795 – in surveying, a baseline or reference point.^[2]
• 1832 – in philosophy, what is immediately presented to the mind or senses.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A single piece of information; a fact or figure: Each datum was entered by hand.^[11][12][2]
2. Something given or assumed, on which reasoning or an argument is based; a premise.^[11][4][2]
3. (philosophy) Something directly presented to the mind or senses; see sense datum.^[4][2]
4. (surveying) A line, point or level from which measurements are taken.^[2][9]

Word family

• sense datum

Related words

• data
• die
• dice
• date

Usage notes

The plural is data,^[11][4][9] which has its own entry and which within English has itself become a singular and collective noun.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House