What is the difference between the words disc and disk? How is each properly used?

jhenkin asks: What is the difference between the words disc and disk? How is each properly used?

I have generally seen disc used for CDs and disk for floppies (AKA diskettes)

As far as I know, "disc" and "disk" are fungible in most instances (although I acknowledge that "disc" has become synonymous with "CD" and "disk" with "diskette"). I suspect that "disc" appeared on the scene first, since both "disc" and "disk" derive from the Latin "discus."

FWIW, from the usual source...
The earlier and better spelling is disk, but disc is now the more usual form in British English, except in sense 2g, where disk is commoner as a result of US influence.]
1715–20 Pope Iliad ii. 941 In empty air their sportive jav'lins throw, Or whirl the disk.[earliest]
g. Computing. A rotatable disc used to store data in digitally coded form, e.g. in a magnetic coating or optically. Cf. compact disc s.v. compact ppl. a.1 II.1c, floppy disc s.v. floppy a. 2, hard disc s.v. hard a. 22c, optical disc s.v. optical a. 6.
See the note to the etymology for the spelling of disc in this sense.

From one stranger to another...although let it be known, I am the stranger.

Disk is the proper word.....disc more colloquial...or am I jockeying the subject.
it came into usage as some typo, I am sure.
In any case "disc" is "cute"...Oh Hell, I hate all 4 letter words.
Do I have to prove this?

You certainly don't have to prove it to me. I catch your drift. The only reason I deemed "disc" the earlier (and more proper) of the two was because of the etymological starting point: "discus." I went with a common sense interpretation, which, per usual, turned out to be the wrong one (being a student of the law, I should have known better). C'est la vie!

Disc for anything to do with computers and modern stuff.

Disk for all else.

Oh, poo! Here comes "discus" as in ancient Olympics to throw me a curve.

Welcome aBOARD all you Strangers! Good to have new blood!

Wow states Disc for anything to do with computers and modern stuff.

Disk for all else.

Funny, I never saw the word spelled "disk" until I became involved with computers. I (superhumanly) changed every single instance of "disk" I came across to "disc" until I realised I was outnumbered about 5 billion to 1, and flagged it away. I based the accepted spelling on my trusty COD and the Latin derivation.

I no longer give a damn!

My dictionary shows disc as a variation of disk, most particularly in reference to a phonograph record. I have also always seen and used disk except for disc jockey (also see "disco," "discotheque," and "discography"), until the dawn of modern tech terminology. But even, now, I see it used interchangeably on floppy packaging...even in the variation diskettes, which wouldn't seem to work as discettes. Also, in reference to UFO's I usually see Flying Disk or Metal Disk. And in reference to the spine -- disk, as in "slipped disk."
And the word, "disklike," is also listed as an adjective...which, in spoken language, could pose a problem for folks
who tend to drop the last consonant (the "k" of disk), and take on a totally different meaning! So, you see, it's not that I disklike disc, it's just that I usually use disk! (except when speaking of vinyl records) But the two have become almost interchangeable in my mind, because I had to reflect at length on each instance of usage
to recall the most predominant...which, alas, just serves to throw more kerosene into the fire, as it were, doesn't it?
[confused]

The usual English spelling of consonant + C/K sound is with a K: rank, rink, sunk; mark, lurk, work; rack, pick; mask, tusk, risk; etc etc.

So disk would be the natural way of writing it if it were an ordinary import into English.

-sc is used in only a few Latinate words: mollusc, fisc, and subfusc are the only other three I know; and of course in US it's mollusk.

I don't know why disk was changed to disc, or when, or what influence. Probably French influence, I suppose. However, at some point disc became established as the British spelling. (Meaning: any round thing; this is long before computers.)

Computing usages generally come from America, so the spellings program and disk are now established, and I (and I think British usage in the main) contrast television programmes with computer programs.

The Compact Disc was invented by the Dutch company Philips, so they used the British spelling, and as it's actually a proprietary term I think you'll find all compact discs are so marked and spelt.

It becomes rather confusing now that compact discs are used for computer storage, just as floppy disks and hard disks are.

In reply to:

---

The Compact Disc was invented by the Dutch company Philips, so they used the British spelling, and as it's actually a proprietary term I think you'll find all compact discs are so marked and spelt.

It becomes rather confusing now that compact discs are used for computer storage, just as floppy disks and hard disks are.

---

This is fascinating, NW... so now we're back to corporate influence on the language? I suppose it should come to me as no surprise...

This brings to mind a very similar question I had wanted to ask.

What about 'bank' and 'banc'? The building is a bank, I do my financial business at the bank. My draft promissory notes (note the adroitness with which I elude the 'check/cheque' argument) say 'Ripoff Bank.' Yet the name of the corporation that owns and operates all the retail banks in the chain, and all of the other financial undertakings is 'The Ripoff Banc' or 'Ripoff Bancshares.' I assume this is coming from the French, but I'm unclear on what, exactly, are the apparently very clear differences.

what, exactly, are the apparently very clear differences

err, spelling?!?

I may be missing something here, slov, but this just seems to me bank = English, banc = French (and Welsh and other latinate languages as in banco etc)

What! you use a bank? Not a financial service institution? Chase Manhattan -- has become Chase and dropped manhattan and bank*. Citi has kept bank-- but under the red umbrella of Travellers-- (insurance)-- and it advertizes its self as a "financial services group!" (*the manhattan part of the Chase started out as a water company-- the company had a single line in there charter about "lending and borrowing money"-- with in 10 years, the "water" part of the company was defunct-- and the Manhattan company was a bank-- but as an artifact, many NYC Chase branches have peices of the original water mains-- rumor has it-- that some small building in NYC still have water delivered to their building with these going on 150+ year old pipes.)

back in the '20's-- with the collapse of the market (stock) bank, brokers and insurance were all seperated.. now holding companies have all three-- so i started out with one company as my broker, an other as my bank, and a third as my insurance agency-- Now all three eggs are in one basket!

and thrown in for interest (I'll say for interest! ) are credit cards. (i never carry a balance, so i am immune to the usarous rate-- as high as 23%!)

slovovio-- is yours an international institution-- or a US one? I don't remember ever seeing a US bank with a legal name of "Ripoff Banc"-- but any number of Canadian-- and european banks are "banc". -- its sometime hard to tell.
In NYC--many international banks operate branches and have US charters, (and Federal insurance for deposits)

Bank One, aka First USA Bank, spells its banking business as "bank." But, if you get a mortgage loan from Bank One, Bank One sells its mortgagee interest to a mortgage company, presumably held by the same umbrella interest, called "Banc One." They are emphatic about the spelling, since the k/c difference distinguishes two legal entities. I suppose there is another head of the hydra somewhere which calls itself "Banque One."

and its checking a/c sibling, Blanque Juan

Let's see if this sheds any light on it (doubtful).

From the Ripoff Bancshares, Inc. website:

[block]Corporate Profile
Ripoff Bancshares, Inc. is a registered bank holding company offering a full line of banking[!] services, including investment management and securities brokerage. The Company currently operates in over 300 locations in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas.

The Company also has operating subsidiaries involved in morgage banking, credit related insurance, venture capital, and real estate activities.[/block]

Oh, right. Thanks. Clears it right up, eh?

Yet I log onto www.ripoffbank.com to do my online account ministrations.

Obviously I've inserted my own editorial thumbprint by renaming it to Ripoff, but the rest is verbatim.

So-- maybe a banc is a bank holding company? Does this whole distinction seem like a great lot of very dodgy corporate goose sauce to anyone else?

No letter c in the big five Canadian banks. You have Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank. All spelled "Banque", as far as I know, in their French translations. (This is easy to check out on their websites but I didn't feel like looking at them all.) I've never seen it spelled Banc.

Upon reading the above posts I've decided that the system must be somehwhat different in the US than here. Still the two websites I checked out only spelled it Bank under Corporate Information.

Yes, you're surely right Bean - I am confusing Welsh and French, not for the first time (to the amusment of all bystanders in either country)

And I think you have it, Slovovoi: it is corporate custard of a slightly different colour, but the same old stale pudding underneath

>custard of a slightly different colour...

perhaps, under the confluence of circumstances, we could refer to it as a blancmange?

... checking a/c...

[rant]Is this a "permanent" replacement for the *real useage - 'air conditioning'? Bleechhh![/rant]

tsuwn-- i have a vision of the maurading blancmange of Monty python-- (the one that invaded the tennis courts and ate the champion ship players) escaping to corporate american (starting in the most sinister of states MN!) and overrunning the world!

Any one have a spoon?

ot, thank you for obviousiZing my message.
-ron o.

From Monty Python's Flying Circus All The Words (V. 1):
--------------------------------------
...So these blancmanges, blancmange-shaped creatures come from the planet Skyron in the Galaxy of Andromeda. They order 48,000,000 kilts from a Scottish menswear shop...turn the population of England into Scotsmen (well known as the worst tennis-playing nation on Earth) thus leaving England empty during Wimbledon fortnight...what's more the papers are full of reports of blancmanges appearing on tennis courts up and down the country -- practising. This can only mean one thing!

They mean to win Wimbledon.
---------------------------------------

Hilarious sketch and absolutely perfect analogy for the behavior of American bank/cs these days. Thanks, tsuwm, for much-needed chuckles.

Then there was the '60's Rock group The Left Banke ("Walk Away Renee," "Pretty Ballerina")...was this their take on a pseudo-French spelling?

the *real useage - 'air conditioning'

I think we may find double entry book-keepers working a few years before you poor sad dabs found you couldn't live on earth without refrigerating your bones, to the vast cost of the ozone layer around the entire planet

Anyway, you must be reading the wrong column of adVERTisments: it's a known fact this aptually© stands for Alternating Current

No-- this is not desending into a food thread-- it is one of thos eerie coincidences-- today's NY Times has an ariticle on Blane mange!-- and recipe too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/30/living/30BLAN.html

words from our threads suddenly appear in the NYtimes crosswords, and, now timely recipes-- who's the NY times spy?

N.B. the NY Times site does require you to register (its free, but they want to know who you are)-- and you must accept cookies.. but there privacy policy is a pretty good one-- and registering does not end up with your name on spam lists.

...stands for Alternating Current

At least this and *my version are tollerable on account of they're being two distinkt words...

...poor sad dabs...

I'm a member of the cool pool school so you can't lay that heavy on me... you drive a fossil guzzlin mobile? Walkin', bikin' or public trans for me (not necessarilly in that order)... simplify, dude!

Walkin', bikin' or public trans for me

Keep on truckin'

I see that the average petrol consumption in US cars has actually DECLINED over the last 20 years, to around 24 mpg.

Just proves the USA needs more musick

> the average petrol consumption in US cars has actually DECLINED

this is due almost entirely to the draffy and execrable SUV.
btw, you can get a used suv real cheap these days, what with the current price of gas....

draffy

?! Sounds good - what meaning?

Sweet mav, this was in somebody or another's wwftd web site:
"draffy
worthless [also draffish]"

By the way, I was glad to see that your explanation of separating the English from the Dutch was what I had been thinking it meant.

tsuwm, I sustained a near-shock when I read the definition of the current wwftd:
"recreancy
mean-spiritedness; apostasy; treachery"

I looked at the word and thought it must have to do with
recreation. Is it related to miscreant in some way, then?

Middle English recreaunt, defeated, from Old French recreant, present participle of recroire, to yield in a trial by combat, surrender allegiance, from Medieval Latin recrdere, to yield, pledge : Latin re-, re- + Latin crdere, to believe; see kerd- in Indo-European Roots. [AHD]

you poor sad dabs found you couldn't live on earth without refrigerating your bones,

Heaven bless the inventor of air conditioning.
That said, the old AC is great for those among us who suffer the tortures of the damned with ah,ah, ah CHOO, ('scuse me!) allergies!
Left in temps above 80 or above 75 with humidity, I frighten friends with a change from my normal Irish-inherited pale complexion to that of a blushing beet!
Very disconcering.
I do agree, tho I hadn't thought much about it before now, that a/c should be kept for alternating current and AC perhaps for air conditioning?