Grammatically, he should be 'Datum'. - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

c0nc0rdance.bsky.social • 10 days ago

Grammatically, he should be 'Datum'.

Reposted from Holodeck Four

Comments

rettopnoj.bsky.social•9 days ago

I feel like he must be plural because he's more than the sum of his parts 🥁

darryldaugherty.bsky.social•10 days ago

He's a container. Of data.

jschuster.bsky.social•10 days ago

Date'um? I hardly even know um!

toyourleft.bsky.social•10 days ago

hectorthehog.bsky.social•10 days ago

I've not yet given up on data/datum, in fact I'm very bloody-minded about it.

nekrotzar.bsky.social•10 days ago

Of course there’s an xkcd

https://xkcd.com/1429/

c0nc0rdance.bsky.social•10 days ago

Randall never misses.

nekrotzar.bsky.social•10 days ago

This one has aged rather badly, but it’s not Randall’s fault we live in the stupidest timeline.

https://xkcd.com/2305/

bionicdance.bsky.social•10 days ago

He's made up of parts; he can be plural.

c0nc0rdance.bsky.social•10 days ago

So long as everyone is consistent with subject-verb agreement:
"Mr. Data were on the bridge"

bionicdance.bsky.social•10 days ago

I do not concur.

He's "Mr. Data" the way Sheldon Cooper's brother is "Dr. Tire": it's a colorful moniker describing a prominent trait, like being made of data or selling tires.

Also, it'd be "Mr. Data are on the bridge."

willemite.bsky.social•10 days ago

My low-stakes pet-peeve is that language evolves, dammit, and "data" should now be considered only a collective noun, like "team" or "flock". "These data" sounds absolutely batshit, and I think everybody knows it, so we can all just drop the act. "This piece of data" "this data" "these data sets" ✅

c0nc0rdance.bsky.social•10 days ago

I don't recall the last time I heard someone say "datum". Like I'm sure it happened, but it's long enough ago I can't remember any specifics.

willemite.bsky.social•10 days ago

Oh my gosh, I think I heard someone say it on a podcast at some point and my first thought was "oh, wow, you just told me A LOT about yourself" 😂