||Da"tum (?), n.; pl.
Data (#). [L. See 2d Date.]
1. Something given or admitted; a fact or
principle granted; that upon which an inference or an argument is
based; -- used chiefly in the plural.
Any writer, therefore, who . . . furnishes us with
data sufficient to determine the time in which he
wrote.
Priestley.
2. pl. (Math.) The quantities
or relations which are assumed to be given in any problem.
Datum line (Surv.), the horizontal or
base line, from which the heights of points are reckoned or measured,
as in the plan of a railway, etc.