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.
As Wiktionary puts it:
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.
And the word “data” is only one word, so “data is plural”
Maybe I’m whooshed, but you understand the concept of uncountable nouns, right?
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
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.
Datum is indeed a word in English. Singular point of information.