Big news briefs: digital technology, Big Data and French

In French, the adjective "digital" means "relating to the fingers." It comes from the Latin digitalis, "as thick as a finger," itself derived from digitus, "finger." Because people counted on their fingers, this Latin noun also gave rise in English to digit, meaning "numeral," and digital, meaning "using numbers." Care must therefore be taken not to confuse these two adjectives, both spelled "digital" but belonging to different languages and having meanings that do not overlap: French has the adjective "numérique."

The expression "Big Data" is an Anglicism. In French, "données massives" or "déluge de données" would be more correct. The term "mégadonnées," used daily in the international French-language press, is poorly formed: méga comes from Greek, whereas data derives from the Latin donare ("to give," which also implies that it is free…).