Unhappy datum

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 27

Looking through this grammar check (ex Pro-blogger) I came across one of my bêtes noires (note fancy French plural.). Datum. It’s the singular of data. But does anyone use it anymore? I’m writing a book in which I’ll mention “data” hundreds of times. Do I really have to use it as a plural? Doesn’t that seem awfully pretentious? It reminds me of a copy editor I once ran across who sprinkled our stories with words like auditoria, rhinoceri, and bureaux.

Reader Comments

Jenny

October 27, 2006 12:53 PM

I had a college professor who wrote "data are plural" on the board on one of the first days of class. I still cringe when I hear "the data is..." etc.

So I still use 'datum,' but boy do I get weird looks--and if there's any other way to say (correctly) what I'm trying to convey, I go that route!

Judy

October 29, 2006 06:55 PM

Call me pedantic, but one of my bugbears is when people use criteria as a singular noun - instead of criterion.

clll

October 31, 2006 12:00 AM

The hope in the war, the seed in the old grudge, exhausted in the evil monster world!game

bigpe

November 1, 2006 05:30 AM

Yes, around 10 million people use "datum" regularly!
Simply because it means "date" in Hungarian :)

Esther

November 8, 2006 04:58 AM

... and in Dutch, which adds another 16 million!

FFXI

November 10, 2006 04:15 AM

Sweep the exhausted water area advertisement, the wow takes the lead.game

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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