Computers. any of several types of media consisting of thin, round plates of plastic or metal, used for external storage: magnetic disk; floppy disk; optical disk.
Botany, Zoology. any of various roundish, flat structures or parts.
Also called: magnetic disk, hard diskcomputinga direct-access storage device consisting of a stack of plates coated with a magnetic layer, the whole assembly rotating rapidly as a single unit. Each surface has a read-write head that can move radially to read or write data on concentric tracksCompare drum 1 (def. 9) See also floppy disk
disc
nowespUSdisk
noun
a flat circular plate
something resembling or appearing to resemble thisthe sun's disc
anatomyany approximately circular flat structure in the body, esp an intervertebral disc
the flat receptacle of composite flowers, such as the daisy
(as modifier)a disc floret
the middle part of the lip of an orchid
Also called: parking disca marker or device for display in a parked vehicle showing the time of arrival or the latest permitted time of departure or both
Latinate spelling preferred in British English for most uses of disk (q.v.). American English tends to use it in the musical recording sense; originally of phonograph records, recently of compact discs. Hence, discophile "enthusiast for gramophone recordings" (1940).
disk
n.
American English preferred spelling, 1660s, "round flat surface," from Latin discus "quoit, discus, disk," from Greek diskos, from dikein "throw," from PIE *dik-skos-, from root *deik- "to show, pronounce solemnly; also in derivatives referring to the directing of words or objects" [Watkins].
Sense of "phonograph disk" is 1888; computing sense is from 1947. Disk jockey first recorded 1941; dee-jay is from 1955; DJ is 1961; video version veejay is 1982. Disk-drive is from 1952.
