Language Matters: The Real Meaning of Big Data
‘Etymology can give a startling new perspective on many of the phrases we frequently toss around in business’
By Gillian Tett
If you think of the word “data”, what image springs to mind? Most of us would probably say computers, numbers or spreadsheets. In some senses, that is entirely correct: today’s digital economy is so dependent on computer-gathered data that consultants often say that data is the new oil. But what is rarely discussed is the source of the word, which has nothing to do with numbers, let alone computers. Instead, the two syllables come from the Latin verb “to give”, presented in the neuter past participle, which could be translated as “that which is given” — or even “a gift”.
Is this just a quaint curiosity? Not right now. For while the definition of data has evolved beyond all recognition, the original meaning reveals a bigger truth. What drives our modern cyber economy is not just bytes and numbers but, as I have written before, a massive system of exchanges. Silicon Valley is partly based on oft-ignored barter trades of personal information for services between internet users and tech companies.
Right now, it is particularly important to think about that original meaning of data, since many…
