databases (was: Re: [Buddha-l] Tibetan for...?)

[jkirk]

Recently Stephen Hodge suggested that 'datumbase'  would be the correct 
form, not 'database,' which is used in the software industry. However, that 
would work if there were only one item in the base.
A database contains or is expected to contain many items; it thus is a 
collection of data, plural.
However, any such '-base' item would itself be a singular noun, an item that 
aggregates multiple units within itself but remains singular as a discrete 
item per se. Thus, it's not incorrect to write 'the database,' or 'a 
database.'

'Railroad,' cited by Stephen, is interesting because most such roads have 
two rails, not one. Yet we also refer to a monorail, or a monorail track, as 
such, rather than calling it a railroad which suggests two lines of rails.
Perhaps this 'railroad' usage got going because 'rail' in this instance is 
an abstraction, referring to a type of transportation means, as in the 
phrase, 'shipped by rail.'

Joanna Kirkpatrick