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by thaumasiotes
1856 days ago
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I (American) agree with chungy; there is a strong convention that specifies floppy disks and compact discs. We could say that "disk" is the American spelling of "floppy disk", but not that it is the American spelling of disc. I suspect that "disk" is used because it is shortened from "diskette", which wouldn't work at all if spelled "discette". |
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By the 20th century, the "k" spelling was more popular in the United States, while the "c" variant was preferred in the UK. Consequently, in computer terminology today it is common for the "k" word to refer mainly to magnetic storage devices (particularly in British English, where the term disk is sometimes regarded as a contraction of diskette, a much later word and actually a diminutive of disk).
So in the mid eighties there was a distinct color/colour kind of split between disk/disc in the US/UK. And someone immersed in the world of restoring data from magnetic storage for a distinctly UK computer of the eighties? Eminently sensible for them to use the UK term, when everything on the computer is going to be saying "INSERT DISC 2".
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There are also some notes in that page on how Phillips/Sony's choice of "disc" for the CD has ended up with that being the common choice for optical media vs magnetic; back in the eighties this convention was not yet established. And then there are also sections for disc/disk in medical literature, and in disc-throwing games. English spelling is weird.