Disk vs Disc (was: WD External Disc Drive)

Chris Rees utisoft at googlemail.com
Mon Oct 26 19:00:04 UTC 2009


2009/10/26 Bob Johnson <fbsdlists at gmail.com>:
> On 10/26/09, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
>> On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:07:45 +0000, Arthur Chance <freebsd at qeng-ho.org>
>> wrote:
>>> The distinction you make is one
>>> I've not come across before, and I've worked with computers for nearly
>>> 40 years.
>>
>
> Same here. I've always been told they were completely interchangeable.
>
> I do recall that when floppy drives appeared for personal computers in
> the late '70s and early '80s, there was some argument about the
> correct spelling. The claim was that "disc" was correct, and that some
> ignorant hobbyist at a new computer company had misspelled it as
> "disk" and it stuck. But IBM used the "disk" spelling long before
> that, so I don't think that was really what happened.
>
> Looking in the OED, I find that "disk" was the original spelling, and
> in the late 1800s "disc" became popular, then around 1950 "disk"
> started regaining popularity, largely in the computer industry.
>
>
> - Bob
>
> --
> -- Bob Johnson
>   fbsdlists at gmail.com

I have always considered hard disk, floppy diskette, and compact disc
(and digital versatile disc) to be the terminology; but then again the
official British spelling is disc, whereas AFAICR the US spelling is
disk.

Chris

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in a mailing list?


More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list