| 释义 |
‖ datum|ˈdeɪtəm|
Pl. data |ˈdeɪtə|.
[L. datum given, that which is given, neut. pa. pple. of dare to give.]
1. a. A thing given or granted; something known or assumed as fact, and made the basis of reasoning or calculation; an assumption or premiss from which inferences are drawn.
1646Hammond Wks. (1674) I. 248 (Stanf.) From all this heap of data it would not follow that it was necessary. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 128 Out of what Data arises the knowledge. 1737Fielding Hist. Register Ded., All..will grant me this datum, that the said..person is a man of an ordinary capacity. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. xii. 146 We have no data to go upon. 1807Hutton Course Math. II. 350 The omission of a material datum in the calculation..namely, the weight of the charge of powder. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. III. lxxvi. 9 The historical and scientific data on which the solution..depends.
b. Comb., as datum-feature, datum-level, datum-line, datum-mark, datum-plane, datum-point, datum-year.
1954Defs. Mech. Engin. (B.S.I.) 9 A datum plane, line or point establishes an exact geometrical reference as distinct from the physical reference provided by a datum feature.
1869R. B. Smyth Goldfields Victoria 609 Datum Water-Level, the level at which water was first struck in a shaft sunk on a reef or gutter. 1909Daily Chron. 6 July 5/7 The price is below what one may call the datum level of {pstlg}6,000. 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. ii. 165 The maximum depth will vary slightly with variations in water level, and ideally it should be referred to some independent datum level.
1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) II. vi. viii, Mountains..can have their relative heights determined only by reference to some common datum-line, as the level of the sea. 1882Geikie Text-bk. Geol. vii. (1885) 925 The lines of stratification may be used as datum-lines to measure approximately the amount of rock which has been worn away. 1954Datum line [see datum feature above].
1926Nat. Hist. Oxf. District 75 The datum mark of the Thames at Osney is 186 ft. above its outlet at the Nore.
1885Science 19 June 499 The horizontal datum-plane adopted by German craniologists. 1954Datum plane [see datum feature above].
1912Aeroplane 5 Dec. 570/2 Their duty will be to enable battery commanders to fix ‘Datum Points’ in the sky. 1933H. G. Wells Shape of Things to Come iv. §4. 359 The intrinsic quality of this book has been entirely overshadowed by its importance as a datum point in history. 1954Datum point [see datum feature above].
1940Economist 9 Nov. 581/1 The Treasury's choice of datum years does allow most industries the advantage of retaining part..of their..profits.
c. Philos. datum of consciousness, etc. (see quots.). Esp. datum of sense (cf. sense-datum).
1846W. Hamilton Wks. T. Reid 749/2 The primary data of consciousness are..admitted..to be true. 1856A. C. Fraser Ess. Philos. iv. 212 This notion of the Infinite is in fact an ultimate datum of consciousness. 1887A. Seth Hegelianism iv. 118 That elementary statement must be originally made in virtue of..some immediate datum of experience. 1890W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xx. 252 ‘Can a doubleness, so easily neutralized by our knowledge, ever be a datum of sensation at all?’ such an anti-sensationalist might ask. 1890A. C. Fraser Locke 186 Locke thus reduces the entire certain knowledge of sensible things that man is capable of to one's present data of sense, and one's memory of past data. 1895W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 392 For our colleague Ladd,..the soul..furthermore performs a unifying act on the naturally separate data of sense. 1902― Var. Relig. Exper. 427 Mystical states merely add a supersensuous meaning to the ordinary outward data of consciousness.
d. pl. The quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by computers and other automatic equipment, and which may be stored or transmitted in the form of electrical signals, records on magnetic tape or punched cards, etc.
1946Ann. Computation Lab. Harvard Univ. I. 11 Two card feeds for supplying the machine with empirical or other data. 1946Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation II. 97 The [IBM card] reader scans standard punched cards..and causes data from them to be stored in relays located in the constant transmitter. 1958Gotlieb & Hume High-Speed Data Processing i. 6 The machine as a whole can be considered to be a device which accepts data and instructions.., stores them.., operates on the data..and produces results by the output. 1960E. Delavenay Introd. Machine Transl. ii. 21 A memory may be used to store data, or to store programme instructions. 1964AFIPS Conference Proc. XXVI. i. 219 Data is transferred to main storage as soon as two bytes are accumulated. 1967Times Rev. Industry July 53/3 Up to 50 types of data can be analysed with one pass through the machine. 1969P. B. Jordain Condensed Computer Encycl. 306 Data are recorded on the tape by magnetizing narrow lengthwise stripes (called tracks) in alternating directions. 1970Sci. Jrnl. June 23/3 During each orbit data from the experiment is transmitted from the satellite to Fairbanks in Alaska and from there..to Oxford for initial processing. 1970A. Chandor et al. Dict. Computers 99 Data is sometimes contrasted with information, which is said to result from the processing of data.
2. pl. Facts, esp. numerical facts, collected together for reference or information.
1899W. W. F. Pullen (title) Tables and data for the use of students in engineering laboratories. 1913(title) Handbook of chemistry and physics; a ready-reference book of chemical and physical data. 1923C. G. Conradi Mech. Road Transport v. 51, I have concluded this chapter with three tables, giving the requisite data pertaining to various solids, liquids and gases..which may be employed as fuels. 1934H. B. Dwight (title) Tables of integrals and other mathematical data. 1946Nature 12 Oct. 519/1 Hexavalent chromium compounds were selected for this study as accurate X-ray and magnetic data for these compounds are available. 1958Macduff & Curreri Vibration Control vii. 165 Most of the data concerning shock and vibration on airplanes are classified. 1971Daily Tel. 28 June 17 Desk research means collecting data from all published sources including government censuses, production figures, import and export statistics,..and trade publications.
3. Used attrib. and in Comb. in the pl. form, as data bank, data-handling, data-transfer vbl. n., data transmission; data capture Computing, the action or process of entering data into a computer, esp. when it occurs as an accompaniment to a related operation; cf. capture n. 1 e; data entry Computing, the action, process, or an act, of entering data into a computer; freq. attrib.; data file Computing, a file containing data (as opposed to a program); data link, a telecommunications link over which data are transmitted, usu. to or from a data-processing centre; data logger, any instrument for making a recording, either continuously or intermittently, of the successive values of a number of different physical quantities; so data-logging vbl. n.; data processing, the performance by automatic means of any operations on empirical data, such as classifying or analysing them or carrying out calculations on them; also transf.; so data processor; data protection, the legal regulation of access to data held in computer storage; data retrieval Computing, retrieval of data held in computer storage; data sheet, a leaflet containing a summary of useful information on some subject; data structure Computing, the way data is organized in a computer, in so far as it affects the use or modification of the data; also, a collection of data items given a particular structure; data terminal Computing, a terminal at which a person can enter data into a computer-based system or receive data from one; data type Computing, a particular kind of data item, as defined by the values it can take or the operations that can be performed on it.
1970Daily Tel. 8 Oct. 9/4 *Data banks containing comprehensive personal files covering criminal records, health records, income tax and so on, would be liable to abuse.
1966S. Beer Decision & Control xv. 384 Mechanical, electrical, photo-electric and electronic means can be used to detect the information sought. A range of..*data-capture devices is already available for the purpose. 1972New Scientist 27 Jan. 207 The credit card holder can be replaced with a document holder or a roll of paper tape, for other data capture purposes. 1978Bookseller 17 June 3196/1 Teleordering could facilitate..data capture at the point of sale. 1984Dictionaries VI. 184 The university had neither the experience nor interest in the initial data capture through manual entering.
1970C. T. Meadow Man–Machine Communication vii. 194 Here, then, [in library cataloguing] is a truly complex *data entry operation. 1977Time 14 Mar. 1/1 (Advt.), Philips Data Systems products include office computers, small business computers, terminal systems, data-entry systems and mini computers. 1978W. S. Davis Information Processing Systems iv. 74 One growing application of CRTs is in data entry... Using a CRT, the terminal operator can enter the data through the keyboard and directly into the computer. 1979Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. (Advt. Section) 1/9 Will operate data entry equipment... Requires equivalence of a high school education, data entry skills and one year of data entry work experience. 1983G. Wiederhold Database Design (ed. 2) v. 260 If an error can be detected while the source of the data is still available, the cost of correction may be only a few times the cost of the original data entry.
1966C. J. Sippl Computer Dict. & Handbk. (1967) 87/1 A permanent *data file is one in which the data is perpetually subject to being updated... A working data file is a temporary accumulation of data sets which is destroyed after the data has been transferred to another form. 1984Which Micro? Dec. 51 (Advt.), You can store up to 50 different data files per cartridge.
1964Language XL. 214 Human beings are somehow specially designed to do this, with *data-handling ability. 1968Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 189/2 The computer is a machine which can perform any data-handling procedure.
1966Guardian 4 May 20/3 *Data links exist now. 1968New Scientist 8 Feb. 312/2 From this central collection point the telephone *data link will connect the various patients to the computer system.
1962Aeroplane CIV. 34/3 A 500-channel *data logger capable of scanning 100 channels per second. 1963B. Fozard Instrumentation Nucl. Reactors xiii. 157 Instrumentation of a nuclear power reactor is commonly undertaken on a very large scale and incorporates *data-logging equipment.
1954Instruments & Automation Dec. 1916/1 New ‘Model CRC 102-A Electronic Computer’ and its auxiliary..are designed for..*data processing. 1956Collier's Year Bk. 105/1 Data processing, in the broadest definition, means the handling of information by arithmetic rules and logic. It is performed by most types of business machines, the simple mechanical adding machines as well as the complex electronic card sorting systems or accounting machines. 1959B.S.I. News Nov. 5/1 Punched cards and tapes used in automatic data processing. 1960Times 22 Jan. 15/5 It..is designed for both mathematical calculations and commercial data-processing. 1966R. L. Gregory Eye & Brain iv. 46 Some of the data processing for perception takes place in the eye.
1954Instruments & Automation Dec. 1905/1 The most advanced techniques for automatic control of plant, factory, and office operations..were represented..(4) electronic computers and *data processors. 1960E. Delavenay Introd. Machine Transl. ii. 19 The big I.B.M. data-processers..are..endowed with high operational speeds.
1975Computers & Privacy (Cmnd. 6353) 9 in Parl. Papers 1975-76 XX. 245 The Government..will therefore appoint..a non-statutory body whose function it will be to prepare the way for the setting up of the permanent machinery. This interim body will be referred to here as the *Data Protection Committee. 1980Times 31 July 2/8 Data protection laws are already in force in France, West Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Luxembourg. 1985Library Assoc. Rec. Feb. 60 Data Protection: A Guide for Library and Information Management..provides a comprehensive study of the data protection issue... The Data Protection Act is examined in detail.
1959Mod. Uses Logic in Law Sept. 1 This is the first issue of the newsletter established by the Electronic *Data Retrieval Committee of the American Bar Association at its meeting in Los Angeles on May 26, 1959. 1972Computers & Humanities VII. 8 This system uses synonym dictionaries, hierarchical arrangement of subject identifiers, and statistical and syntactic phrase generation methods for data retrieval on the IBM 7094 and 360/65. 1985Oil & Gas Jrnl. 4 Feb. 66/1 The main computer system controls data retrieval from the production areas through a multi-tasking operating system installed on the main computer.
1898Machinery (N.Y.) June 312/1 Four *data sheets containing information on laying out gear blanks. 1971Amateur Photographer 3 Mar. 31 This, No. 1 in a series of data sheets covering all major facets of photography, provides basic information on the general purpose black-and-white films on the market.
1963Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery VI. 402/1 Harold W. Lawson, Jr.,..delivered at the ACM Conference a paper [called]..The Use of Chain List Matrices for the Analysis of COBOL *Data Structures. 1971Ibid. XIV. 316/2 Data structure is the view of the data as seen by the user of the system and excluding any details of storage techniques used. 1973C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. vii. 265 The computer program must store the input data in a form that shows the relation between items. In this case the data structure must indicate which reservations a passenger holds and what passengers are booked on each flight. 1980C. S. French Computer Sci. x. 46 In many situations, sets of data items..way be conveniently arranged into a sequence and referred to by a single identifier... Such an arrangement is a data structure called an array. 1984J. Hilton Choosing & using your Home Computer vi. 146 In a computer's memory there is only data, byte after byte of it... Meaning is given to those bytes by the data structure that the central processor imposes.
1959Trans. AIEE LXXVII. 872 (heading) SAGE *data terminals. 1965Bennett & Davey Data Transmission vii. 247 (heading) Data terminals using amplitude modulation. 1982McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 1982-83 16/2 The installation consists of a central computerized base station and trucks equipped with an FM radio transceiver, a microprocessor data terminal with a liquid crystal or light-emitting diode display screen, [etc.].
1959J. Jeenel Programming for Digital Computers v. 253 Techniques for *data transfers to and from magnetic disks. 1985Personal Computer World Feb. 192/2 To control this data transfer various protocols exist which ensure a method of recovering data errors, [etc.].
1946Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation II. 91 The design of *data-transmission and servo units, the development of codes and related equipment for the rapid set-up of problems, and the conversion of continuous variables..into digital form.
1967Cox & Grose Organiz. Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer ii. 23 Each element carried an indication of the type of data it contained, eight different types (0 to 7) being allowed for... Alphabetical data became *data-type 0. 1979Personal Computer World Nov. 74/1 Line 2 introduces a new data type, the character type CHAR which consists of a single letter.., digit or normal keyboard punctuation mark.
¶ Used in pl. form with sing. construction.
1807W. Irving Salmag. xviii. 366 My grandfather..took a data from his own excellent heart. 1902A. S. Tompkins Hist. Rec. Rock Co., N.Y. 46 There is but little data to estimate Indian populations. 1931H. F. Pringle T. Roosevelt p. viii, The author has preserved this data. 1955[see biomedical s.v. bio-]. 1963Daily Express 23 Sept. 3 He took out a patent but some of the data is missing. 1964,1970[see 1 d above]. 1965J. Allan Speaking of Computers 5 Incidentally, by general usage data is now accepted as a singular collective noun. 1971Computer Weekly 13 May 3/1 They have done little to analyse and interpret this data.
Add:[3.] dataglove, DataGlove, a device worn like a glove and containing sensors linked to a representation of a hand in a computer display, allowing the manual manipulation of images in virtual reality.
1987S. S. Fisher in D. P. Casasent Intelligent Robots & Computer Vision (Proc. SPIE DCCXXVI) 396 The *DataGlove is a lightweight, glove-like device that electronically records and transmits data-records of hand and finger shape and dynamics to a host computer by measuring the amount of joint bend, finger abduction, and thumb circumduction. 1989Technol. Rev. Apr. 10/1 Someday, headset users might even ‘touch’ a remote patient with a ‘dataglove’ that receives sensations from a robot surgeon on the space station. 1993Whole Earth Rev. 22 June 30/1 A live improvisation on musical instruments that exist only in virtual reality. The piece is performed by a single hand in a DataGlove.
▸ data analysis n.
1932N.Y. Times 10 Apr. ii. 15/1 (heading) Improved credit *data analyses. 2001School Sci. Rev. Dec. 26/1 Graphs are an important part of data analysis and are closely connected to statistics, since the choice of graph is connected to the choice of statistical test.
▸ data security n.
1961Accounting Rev. 44 590 (heading) Processing and *data security controls. 2003Computerworld (Electronic text) 31 Mar. A data security breach caused by cyberattack or digital terrorism.
▸ data acquisition n. the automated gathering of data in a form in which it can be processed by a computer; data capture.
1955Jrnl. Soc. Industr. & Appl. Math. 3 203 The discussion of possible generalizations..can also be extended to..the method of *data acquisition. 1980Oil & Gas Jrnl. (Nexis) 17 Mar. 97 The chief drawback of current on-line systems is the combination of a mediocre data acquisition component (sensor + transmission) with an excessively complex processing unit (micro or minicomputer). 1998Sunday Tel. 25 Jan. (Appointments section) 27/4 (advt.) We are seeking high calibre C++ programmers to work on-site at our customers premise [sic] in Essex designing and implementing real-time data acquisition and post-processing tools.
▸ data communication n. (a) the transmission of data, esp. between computer systems; (b) (in sing. and (usu.) pl.) the field of electronic engineering and study concerned with this.
1956N.Y. Times 10 Dec. 45 (advt.) Digital *data communications via telephone and telegraph. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xi. 155 Data transmission, or data communication, is a modern name for telegraphy. 1984Which Micro? Dec. 51 (advt.) ZX Net..for high-speed data communications between you and..friends. 1995Post (Denver) 15 Jan. g7 (advt.) Additional qualifications include working knowledge of data communications equipment including..statistical multiplexors, bridges, and routers. 2002Computer Weekly 17 Jan. 24/2 As the company admits, its Relational Differential Encoding (RDE) technology is still about 18 months away from becoming a product that could revolutionise the data communications and storage industries.
▸ data dump n. (a) the transferral of a large amount of information from one system, body, etc., to another; (b) = info-dump n.
1965OR 16 210 This *data dump plays an important part on the SIMPAC system, since very little analysis is done during the run, this all being reserved for a post-run program. 1977Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 71 308/1 The unadjusted historical reconstructions of the congressional returns are also included in the Census Bureau's Congressional District Data Book, giving that volume a few election returns in what is otherwise a massive data dump of 303 demographic and economic characteristics of congressional districts. 1994Interzone May 62/3 It's a sequel to Warrior (which should ideally be read first..) but there are enough data-dumps in the early chapters for this to be optional. 2003Austral. Financial Rev. (Nexis) 15 Apr. 37 ‘The system that runs the tolling function does a daily data dump’, says Goding. ‘The ERP system reformats it and then imports it into a journal ledger.’
▸ data smog n. confusing masses of information, esp. from the Internet, in which the erroneous, trivial, or irrelevant cannot be easily or efficiently separated from what is of genuine value or interest (often in figurative context); obfuscation generated by this; cf. information overload n. at information n. Additions.
1993D. Shenk in Next Progressive Sept. 7 (heading) *Data smog. 1997D. Shenk Data Smog 16 We..routinely find ourselves burdened by problems of excess. Now, for all the wonders of the information revolution, a menacing cloud of ‘data smog’ has drifted in. 1999Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 7 Oct. a13 The solid investigations are often lost in the ‘data smog’ of fluff, ads and unedited information. 2000Wired Feb. 176/2 For humans, the detection of a meaningful signal in clouds of data smog happens subliminally all the time.
▸ data stream n. (also datastream) chiefly Computing a continuous sequence or flow of data or instructions.
1961Accounting Rev. 36 282 At first glance, the respective names for accounting and sampling results seem to reflect the difference in *data streams. 1985Inmac Catal. Spring–Summer 67/1 In the RS-232-C Standard, it can involve dedicated pins (hardware handshake) on adding control characters to the data stream (software handshake). 1996Guardian 13 May ii. 12/5 We may learn to stop thinking of distinct channels, and acknowledge that we are simply tapping into a vast datastream, bringing bank statements, the latest Nintendo game, our favourite programmes at times convenient to us. 1999J. Naughton Brief Hist. of Future (2001) i. 11 The ‘plug-ins’..which extend the capability of browsers like Netscape to handle digital audio, compressed movies and other arcane data streams—seem as weird as the cat's whiskers of yesteryear.
▸ DataSuit n. (also datasuit) a garment-like device, used in virtual reality simulations, containing sensors linked to a representation of the body on a computer display, into which the wearer's movements are translated (a proprietary name in the United Kingdom); cf. dataglove n. at Additions.
1988Byte Sept. 288/1 VPL specializes in devices that let you manipulate an on-screen ‘virtual’ device that is the same shape as the actual input device. The firm now has two commercial products: the DataGlove and the *DataSuit. 1998Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 30 Aug. bm13 A DataSuit takes the experience to a new level. The fiber-optic technology is the same, but it covers many more joints: up to 50, including the knees, elbows and waist.
▸ data warehouse n. Computing a database in which data collected from several operational systems is integrated and stored by subject in such a way that it can be easily analysed, esp. for making informed management decisions; cf. data warehousing n. at Additions.
1981N.Y. Times 23 Aug. iv. E9/3 Such electronic *data warehouses are mushrooming. A recent Federal study lists almost 200. 1998Industry Standard 29 June 13 (advt.) Now a global sales staff can access a 7 by 24 data warehouse, easily search through inventory data, and put together advertising packages for their customers.
▸ data warehousing n. Computing the collection, integration, and storage in a single database of data from several operational systems; cf. data warehouse n. at Additions.
1966N.Y. Times 30 Oct. ix. 43/2 (advt.) International & Nationwide *Data Warehousing & M.I.S. Processing Centers Staffing Now! 2001Computer Weekly 5 July 20/2 In the early and mid-1990s datawarehousing was the darling of the IT pundits and suppliers... Only now is the technology in relatively widespread use. |