Comment

Comment on Is "disk" just a different spelling of "disc" or are they actually different words?

BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Disc and disk are varient spellings of the same word that pre-exist computing. Disc is more common in British English, Disk more common in American English. But yeah since computing came along disk has also been used more for magnetic media (hard disk) while disc has been used more for optical media (compact disc). I wouldn’t be surprised if this only happened because of how the CD was marketed and branded as a “compact disc” as a trademark while hard disks and floppy disks etc were more generic terms.

source

Sort:hotnew top

partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
In modern parlance, this has been my working understanding too:

But yeah since computing came along disk has also been used more for magnetic media (hard disk) while disc has been used more for optical media (compact disc).

Optical:

compact disc

laser disc

Magnetic:

3.5" diskette

800GB ard disk drive

…and just to point out there is some disagreement

Magneto-Optical , such as Sony MiniDisc, is sometimes referred to Disk and sometimes as a MO Disk.
source
MisterFrog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Bloody English spelling… There’s a reason spelling bees don’t exist in some other languages.

We have a competition for spelling because English spelling is so bad at its job.

source