datastore vs. data store

Subject: datastore vs. data store
From: Kathi Jan Knill <Kathi -dot- Knill -at- TEMPLATE -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 12:11:03 -0500

You wrote:
Both spellings of this term show up in my company's
documentation.
This term doesn't show up in style guides but I lean toward the
datastore (one word) rendering as it's close to database.

We use the term data store at my company, and as you can see, it
is written as two words. Even if my company did not use it as
separate words, I would suggest that you use two words for the
following reasons:
1. I checked in both the IBM Dictionary of Computing and the
American Heritage Dictionary (unabridged) and the word
'datastore' was not in either reference book. (Although the
Dictionary of Computing had 'Data Storage Facility' and that too
uses two words.)
2. If you check in some other reference guides, I think you will
find that although 'database' is accepted as either one word or
two, most other entities that begin with the word 'data' are
split as two words, e.g., data record, data source, data set,
etc.
3. Lastly, although this is just my opinion, I have a 'pet peeve'
about people (in general) making up words to suit their needs. I
may be dating myself, but when I was a little girl, I learned the
word priority. If I had to make a list of priorities, I was
"setting my priorities." Nowadays, because it has been used so
often, the dictionary actually accounts for the word prioritize.
I know that language should be forever growing, but as I said, I
don't like it when people make up words to suit their needs.

I don't mean that last one to sound like a "female dog," so
please don't take it that way.

Kathi Jan Knill
Senior Technical Writer
Template Software
Kathi -dot- Knill -at- Template -dot- com
"Your mind can only hold one thought at a time. Make it a
positive and constructive one." --H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

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