Those pesky plurals (Media/medium Data/datum)
For an etymological discussion I'm having (skip unless you're a word-geek):
TL;DR - They are originally in English from Latin and the plural/singular are as @hubbit outlines. However, the Latin plural forms, especially in particular usages, have been used by themselves so much that for quite a while they have been treated as singular in English.
Media/medium Data/datum
From the OED
Medium
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmiːdɪəm/ , U.S. /ˈmidiəm/
Forms: 15 mediam, 15– medium, 19– media. Plural 16 18– media, 16– mediums.
Etymology: < classical Latin medium middle, centre, midst, intermediate course, intermediary, in post-classical Latin also means (frequently from the 12th cent. in British sources, usually plural), middle term of a syllogism (c1250, c1380 in British sources), intervening substance (a1446 in a British source), use as noun of neuter of medius middle, central, intervening, intermediate, moderate, middling < the Indo-European base of mid adj. Compare Middle French, French médium middle term (a1590), intervening substance (1643), spiritual medium (1853: see sense A. 6b). With sense A. 1 compare post-classical Latin medium arithmeticum (from a1450 in British sources). With the phrase through the medium of compare post-classical Latin per medium (from 13th cent. in British sources).
The plural form media is the regular Latin plural. An Anglicized plural mediums is attested from the 17th cent. and is particularly common for concrete entities: see especially senses A. 6, A. 5c, A. 7, A. 9, A. 10. Free variation between these two forms is present in most of the senses in modern English with the exception of sense A. 6b where the plural is almost always mediums (although see also quot. 1928 at sense A. 6b).
From the plural form media in sense A. 4d a new singular has arisen: see media n.2
****I think this might be what @Adm_Hawthorne is talking about.
media n.2 leads to:
Etymology: < media, plural of medium n. 4d. Compare mass media n.
The use of media with singular concord and as a singular form with a plural in -s have both been regarded by some as nonstandard and objectionable. Compare:
1966 K. Amis in New Statesman 14 Jan. 51/3 The treatment of media as a singular noun..is spreading into the upper cultural strata.
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1. The main means of mass communication, esp. newspapers, radio, and television, regarded collectively; the reporters, journalists, etc., working for organizations engaged in such communication. Also, as a count noun: a particular means of mass communication.
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Data:
Brit. /ˈdeɪtə/ , /ˈdɑːtə/ , U.S. /ˈdædə/ , /ˈdeɪdə/
Etymology: < classical Latin data, plural of datum datum n. Compare earlier datum n. and also the foreign-language parallels cited at that entry.
The use of data as a mass noun became increasingly common from the middle of the 20th cent., probably partly popularized by its use in computing contexts, in which it is now generally considered standard (compare sense 2b and the recent uses cited at datum n. 1b, some of which are ambiguous as to grammatical number). However, in general and scientific contexts it is still sometimes regarded as objectionable. Compare the plural uses cited at datum n. and the following:
1949 Nature 19 Nov. 890/1 ‘Data’ was a plural noun; for literate English writers it still is, and I contend that it always should be.
1978 P. Howard Weasel Words xiii. 63 Data stubbornly persists in trying to become an English singular.
1990 Psychologist 13 31/1 A staggeringly large number of psychologists fail to appreciate that ‘data’ should be followed by the plural form of the verb.
Datum:
Brit. /ˈdeɪtəm/ , /ˈdɑːtəm/ , U.S. /ˈdædəm/ , /ˈdeɪdəm/
Inflections: Plural data /ˈdeɪtə/ , (in sense 3) datums.
Etymology: < classical Latin datum that which is given, present, use as noun of neuter past participle of dare to give < the same Indo-European base as Sanskrit dadāmi (stem dā-), ancient Greek δίδωμι, both reduplicated presents with sense ‘I give’. Compare German Datum piece of information (1631, earliest with Latin case endings, now usually in plural form Daten).
The plural form data reflects the Latin plural; within English, this has given rise to a new singular and collective noun: see data n. and discussion at that entry.
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Bonus Graffiti/graffito
The first usages in English are all graffiti in the plural except for an art history book (I'd argue it could be using the Italian word for lack of an English one without the word really being in use in English conversation)
graffito, n.
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Pronunciation: /ɡrafˈfito/ /ɡrəˈfiːtəʊ/
Forms: Pl. graffiti /ɡrafˈfiti/ /ɡrəˈfiːtiː/ .
Etymology: < Italian graffito, < graffio a scratch.
Hist. and Art.
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A drawing or writing scratched on a wall or other surface; a scribbling on an ancient wall, as those at Pompeii and Rome. Also, a method of decoration in which designs are produced by scratches through a superficial layer of plaster, glazing, etc., revealing a ground of different colour; chiefly attrib., as in graffito-decoration, -pottery, -ware.
1851 D. Wilson Archaeol. & Prehist. Ann. Scotl. (1863) II. iv. iv. 286 The slight scratching of many of the Maeshowe Runes, and the consequent irregularity and want of precision in the forms..of what, it must be remembered, are mere graffiti.
1873 J. A. Symonds Stud. Greek Poets xi. 242 Even the Graffiti of Pompeii have scarcely more power to reconstruct the past and summon as in dreams the voices and the forms of long since buried men.
1873 F. B. Palliser tr. A. Jacquemart Hist. Ceramic Art 619 Index, Graffito decoration.
transf.
1877 A. B. Edwards Thousand Miles up Nile xxi. 653 Visited by crowds of early travellers, who have as usual left their neatly-scribbled graffiti on the walls.
1886 E. Dowden Life Shelley I. v. 179 She sang pleasantly; and could scribble such graffiti as may be found in school-girls' copy-books.
