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

  • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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    5 months ago

    Has nothing to do with country. Discs are round objects. In the computing sense that’s cds, dvds, etc.

    Disks are floppy disks(diskette, “discette” never existed as a word) , hard drive disks… etc. There is a difference and it has nothing to do with what land you’re in. Disk in usa never meant a circular object like a Frisbee (discus for example)

    • mkwt@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      But the floppy diskette and the “hard disks” did in fact have circular discs inside that spin around.

      I suspect that the word diskette was created as an analog to tape “cassette”.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        Considering “cassette” is the diminutive form of “casse” which meant “case,” this seems right. This meant that the magnetic tape was held in a “diminutive case” which was arguably true when compared to records and 8-tracks.

        So, diskettes also being magnetic, also being encased in something, and also being the diminutive form of a larger thing tracks.

        By george, I think they’ve got it.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        “-Ette” is a common diminutive used to imply that something is a smaller version of something else. Like many things, we nicked it from the French.

        Cigarette, a little cigar. Featurette, a short feature. Novelette, a miniature novel. Etc.

        So, diskette, a little disk. Quite separate from the ones spinning in your company’s mainframe at the time. Those ones were two feet in diameter locked in a steel cabinet that weighs two tons. This one can fit in your shirt pocket. You get the idea.