Data refers to a collection of organised information, usually the result of experience, observation or experiment, other information within a computer system, or a set of premises. This may consist of numbers, words, or images, particularly as measurements or observations of a set of variables.
The word data is the Latin plural of datum, neuter past participle of dare, "to give", hence "something given". The past participle of "to give" has been used for millennia, in the sense of a statement accepted at face value; one of the works of Euclid, circa 300 BC, was the Dedomena (in Latin, Data). In discussions of problems in geometry, mathematics, engineering, and so on, the terms givens and data are used interchangeably. Such usage is the origin of data as a concept in computer science: data are numbers, words, images, etc., accepted as they stand. Pronounced dey-tuh, dat-uh, or dah-tuh.
