I heard some people say theyre the same thing, but others are adamant that they have different meanings. Which is it?

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Disk is for things that are more kiki, but disc, with that rounded off c, is for things that are more bouba.

  • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world
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    5 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.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      5 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 hard disk drive

      …and just to point out there is some disagreement

      Magneto-Optical , such as Sony MiniDisc, is sometimes referred to Disc for its optical properties and sometimes as a MO Disk for its magnetic properties.

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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      5 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.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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      5 months ago

      This is correct in most cases but I don’t think it’s the underlying principle.

      This wiki talks about the etymology, with a lot of examples. Most conform to this rule, but there are exceptions in astrophysics like an accretion disk.

      Even in info tech, “hard disk” doesn’t really conform to this rule. Like is a hard disk a square hard drive or is it the round thing inside? If it’s the square hard drive, that’s not thin enough to be a “disk”. I’d it’s the round thing inside that would be hard disc, but also creates problems for floppy disk because why refer to the housing in one instance but not another.

      Sadly, I think the correct answer is that either refers to a thin flat thing, some spellings are preferred for some uses.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        til disk is actually preferred in American English. from your link:

        Usage notes

        In most varieties of English, disk is the preferred spelling for magnetic media (hence floppy disk, hard disk, disk drive), whereas disc is preferred for optical media (hence compact disc, digital versatile disc, optical disc). For all other uses, disk is preferred in American English and acceptable in Canadian English, and disc otherwise.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        I can clarify some of the tech stuff.

        A “disk” is a concept. It’s an object which contains data.

        “Hard” disks and “floppy” disks are always referring to the rigidity of the internal storage media. 7", 5.25", and 3.5" floppy disks have the same round magnetic storage material. The only difference with a 3.5" floppy disk is that they put a hard case over the floppy disk.

        CD, DVD, Blu-ray, etc are both disks and discs, as their typically handled without a caddy/case. So technically both apply.

        SSDs are still disks, just solid state, rather than floppy/hard spinning magnetic media.

        Technically flash drives are also solid state disks, but we don’t generally conflate the two terms for clarity.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        sir, this is lemmy shitpost. Here’s a citation for thinkin too hard, don’t let it happen again.