Another one bites the dust?

[Wilson Gray]

I've read and occasionally heard "datum" far more often than I've read
or heard "criterion." In fact, in my experience, "criterion" is
practically extinct in non-academic speech.

-Wilson

On 9/12/07, James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Another one bites the dust?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Data - datum: who ever says "a datum"; rather, "a
> piece of data" or even "a piece of information".
> Commonly "This data...", sometimes "these data...",
> almost never "this datum...".  The only case I am
> familiar with where 'datum' is used regularly is in
> reference to elevations: "What is the datum for this
> map?", i.e., what is the base or reference elevation.
>
>
> --- "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
>
> > I've often heard "a phenomena" and "a criteria,"
> > and last night on the news someone spoke of "a
> > paparazzi." We deal here with a tendency (not a law,
> > though, of course) to shift the plural to the
> > singular. I've noticed many more examples over the
> > years, but they don't come to mind at the moment.
> > Maybe it's time to compile them.
> >
> > Gerald Cohen
> >
> > > ----------
> > > From:         American Dialect Society on behalf
> > of Benjamin Barrett
> > > Reply To:     American Dialect Society
> > > Sent:         Wednesday, September 5, 2007 11:36
> > PM
> > > To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Subject:           Re: Another one bites the dust?
> > >
> > > My chiropractor says that as well. My real estate
> > agent says "an
> > > addenda". I know that my real estate agent knows
> > the difference; surely
> > > my chiropractor does as well. BB
> > >
> > > Wilson Gray wrote:
> > > > Heard on CSI:
> > > >
> > > > [Holding up a bone]: "Looks like a human
> > _vertebrae_."
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >
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> > >
> >
> >
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>
>
> James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
> South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
> jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
>                                |or slowly and cautiously.
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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