information

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Late Latin in- Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ)der.? Late Latin fōrma Late Latin fōrmō Late Latin īnfōrmō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Late Latin -tiō Late Latin īnfōrmātiōder. Middle English enformacioun English information From Middle English enformacioun, informacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman informacioun, enformation, Old French information, from Latin īnfōrmātiō (“formation, conception; education”), from the participle stem of īnformāre (“to inform”). Equivalent to inform + -ation.

1. Something that provides a definitive characterization or description of the nature and attributes of a specified entity.

   “And now we come to the third keystone, information.⁸ Information may be thought of as a reduction in entropy—as the ingredient that distinguishes an orderly, structured system from the vast set of random, useless ones.⁹ Imagine pages of random characters tapped out by a monkey at a typewriter, or a stretch of white noise from a radio tuned between channels, or a screenful of confetti from a corrupted computer file. Each of these objects can take trillions of different forms, each as boring as the next. But now suppose that the devices are controlled by a signal that arranges the characters or sound waves or pixels into a pattern that correlates with something in the world: the Declaration of Independence, the opening bars of “Hey Jude,” a cat wearing sunglasses. We say that the signal transmits information about the Declaration or the song or the cat.¹⁰”

2. Things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something.

   “I need some more information about this issue.”

   “And ſo much yet did this contagion breake foorth to the harme of manie Inhabitants of his Towne, who affected the Vicont, that they which were encountred by the kinges troupes, (information being geuen of their demeanor) they were iudged to be of good prize, and voluntarely paid ranſom.”

3. The act of informing or imparting knowledge; notification.

   “For your information, I did this because I wanted to.”

   “At this time a great uneasiness became manifest among the Castilians, and it was rumored that Magallanes was going to deliver them over to the Portuguese; and they resolved to mutiny and seize the ships. Magallanes upon obtaining information of this was sorely grieved. He summoned the guilty ones before him one by one, but they flatly refused to come.”

4. A statement of criminal activity brought before a judge or magistrate; in the UK, used to inform a magistrate of an offence and request a warrant; in the US, an accusation brought before a judge without a grand jury indictment.

   “That friend, […] added, with a smile, that he had more than once amused himself with the thought of a verbarian Attorney-General, authorized to bring informations ex officio against the writer or editor of any work in extensive circulation, who, after due notice issued, should persevere in misusing a word.”

   “'We have another deposition, doctor, to take; Mr. Irons, here, is prepared to swear informations of very singular importance.'”

5. The act of informing against someone, passing on incriminating knowledge; accusation.
6. The systematic imparting of knowledge; education, training.
7. The creation of form; the imparting of a given quality or characteristic; forming, animation.
8. The meaning that a human assigns to data by means of the known conventions used in its representation.
9. Divine inspiration.

   “But there was no information, and so we continued And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon”

10. A service provided by telephone which provides listed telephone numbers of a subscriber.
11. Any unambiguous abstract data, the smallest possible unit being the bit.
12. The output resulting from the systematic collection, manipulation and organization of raw data into a structured, interpretable format.
13. Any ordered sequence of symbols (or signals) (that could contain a message).