A set of literary or artistic principles or assumptions on which a creative work is based: "He worked outward from the donnée toward the expression of some general theme or idea"(Hugh Honour).
A set of notions, facts, or conditions that governs and shapes an act or a way of life: "His heart, his mind, his body, composed the donnée of his life"(Louis Auchincloss).
[French, from feminine past participle of donner, to give, from Old French, from Latin dōnāre; see donate.]
[do-ney] 
