If the singular of data is datum, then...?

Question

Unfortunately I never did Latin at school so can you help?

If the singular of data is datum, then is the singular of flora, florum?
If not, why not?

And if it is, can you please give an example of when it is or can be used?

Answer 1

You know French nouns are either masculine or feminine? Well, Latin nouns are masculine, feminie or neuter. Masculine nouns end -us, with the plural ending -i (hippopotamus, hippopotami; gladiolus, gladioli)
Feminine nouns end in -a, with the plural ending -ae
(alga,algae)
Neuter nouns end in -um, with the plural enfing -a
(datum, data; agendum, agenda)

Just to confuse matters: the latin for flower is an irregular noun "flos" (plural floris), but the collection of plants in an area, "flora", comes from Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. The dictionary gives either florae or floras as possible plural forms, but flora is a collective noun so does not usually need a plural.

Answer 2

It's important to mention that language evolves so that data is now often used as a singular as in 'thank you for that piece of data'. Wrong, of course in classical terms, but will almost ceratinly become standard English.

Other examples might be stadiums which really ought to be stadia, forums should be fora etc. But does it matter. Only if you're 2000 year old Roman.

Incidentally, uneducated masses are ofetn referred to as the 'hoi polloi'. This is a singular; the plural in ancient Greek should be 'ton pollon' but current usage has accepted 'hoi polloi'.

If you want to go back to linguistic routes we should probably write braun for brown, haus for house and so on as these are all from the Germanic basis of English (it is a Germanic rather than romantic language).

Answer 3

Flora is a singular word for a plural item.
Flora is what the whole range of plants in an area is called.
The plural form of the word is florae.

Answer 4

Words in Latin have different plurals depending on what they end with. Singular words ending in '-um' have plurals ending in '-a'. Singular words ending in '-a- have plurals ending in '-'ae'.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that our word 'flora', meaning the plant life of a given area, comes from the name of an ancient Italian goddess of fertility and flowers. Assuming there was only one of her, no plural required!

I agree with JS that it's important to remember that language evolves, and English usage doesn't have to depend on Latin plurals. However, I've got to quibble - 'hoi polloi' is definitely plural, nominative case. 'ton pollon' is plural genitive. See wikipedia article below (omicron declension, like 'logos').

Answer 5

Flora is a collective noun used to describe plants and flowers in general. Florum is never used.
.

Answer 6

Flora is singular (collective noun). It has two plural forms: florae and floras.

Answer 7

I agree with you, I wonder if it also applies to scrota?
you say singular should be plural.

Answer 8

"Datas" is not a word, however "data's" is.