big data

Meaning

Noun

• 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.

Origin

• 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.” After being interviewed on his use of the term "big data" by NYTimes.com blogger Steve Lohr, Dieblold undertook his own investigation, 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 figured prominently.”