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data

DAY-tuh · noun

LatinEnglish

Origin

Data comes from Latin data, the nominative plural of datum, meaning 'that is given' — itself the neuter past participle of dō, 'to give.'

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Journey

The word entered English as the plural of things given or granted, and only later settled into its modern sense of facts and figures.

Related words

Data is a doublet of date, the two words having split off from the same Latin root while taking different paths into English.

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From Latin

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