data [M17th] Originally recorded as a term in philosophy referring to ‘things assumed to be facts’, it is the Latin plural of datum ‘a piece of information’, literally ‘something given’. Although plural, data is often treated in British English as a singular meaning ‘information’, although Americans and Australians use ‘the data are…’, and this is increasingly common in Britain. See also dice. In the Middle Ages letters could be headed with the Latin formula data (epistola)…‘(letter) given or delivered…’ at a certain day or place. From this comes date [ME] in the time sense. The date you eat is also Middle English but comes from Greek daktulos ‘finger’, because of the finger-like shape of the plant’s leaves.