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Definition 2024

big_data

big data

See also: bigdata

English

Noun

big data ‎(uncountable)

  1. Data on a very large scale, such that it can only be gathered or processed with computers, especially with reference to its potential to allow for new breakthroughs or understanding in a particular field of study.
    • 2015, The Guardian, picture caption, 23 October:
      Big data has the potential to revolutionise the global healthcare system, but barriers to its adoption mean progress is slow.
    • 2016, Andrew Gallix, ‘The Making of Mersault’, Literary Review, November:
      James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti's enchanting and exhilarating annotated atlas of animal movements […] is a product of ‘big data’ methodology.

Translations

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.12.1638&rep=rep1&type=pdf
  2. ↑ The Origins of ‘Big Data’: An Etymological Detective Story, New York Times "Bits" blog, February 1, 2013.
  3. ↑ A Personal Perspective on the Origin(s) and Development of "Big Data": The Phenomenon, the Term, and the Discipline, November 26, 2012.
  4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mashey

Etymology

The Wikipedia article cites several sources from 2009 having "big data" in the title, which is when the term seems to have caught on. The same two words can be attested in the 1980s and 1990s, but not in the current sense of the term.

In 2000, economist Francis X. Diebold published the first version of a paper titled “Big Data Dynamic Factor Models for Macroeconomic Measurement and Forecasting.”[1] After being interviewed on his use of the term "big data" by NYTimes.com blogger Steve Lohr[2], Dieblold undertook his own investigation,[3] in which he concluded: “The term Big Data, which spans computer science and statistics/econometrics, probably originated in the lunch-table conversations at Silicon Graphics in the mid-1990s, in which John Mashey[4] figured prominently.”

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˌbɪɡ ˈdeɪtə/

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