[alexone]

if we talk about the compact disc then it is written with 'c'. the hard disk drive is written with 'k'.
does anyone knows why?

(might not be the most important thing to talk about but i am just curious...)

al.

[BradJudy]

Disc with a "c" refers to optical disks (CD, DVD, etc). 

[alexone]

thanks, BradJudy .


al.

[dubkarma]

My take on it is that the CD was invented by Europeans (and Japanese) and so they spelt the second word "disc", which is the normal spelling in UK English.

The hard "disk" drive was, if not invented by Americans, at least, with the PC, popularized by Americans, and so was spelt according to the conventions of American English. Similarly, American English has "skeptical," while UK English has "sceptical."

Of course, if you are sceptical about my explanation, that's okay by me.

Cheers,

Joel.

[Rashiki]

BradJudy's explanation is generally accepted in the tech industry. See this Apple explanation: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2300?viewlocale=en_US.

Joel's explanation is also generally accepted as the root cause for the discrepancy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_disc, but it doesn't explain why Kodak (an American company) introduced "disc film" in the eighties. Maybe they agreed with the disc-means-optical meme and felt that film is a form of optical storage.

 -Rob