Latinate spelling preferred in British English for most uses of disk (q.v.). American English tends to use it in the musical recording sense (1888); originally of phonograph records, recently of compact discs.
"enthusiast for or collector of gramophone recordings," 1940, from disc in the musical recording sense + -phile "one that loves or is attracted to." The earlier word was gramophile.
"club where recorded dance music is played," 1954 as a French word in English; nativized by 1964, from French discothèque "nightclub with recorded music for dancing" (by 1951), also "record library," borrowed 1932 from Italian discoteca "record collection, record library," coined 1927 from disco "phonograph record" (see disc) + -teca "collection" (from Latinized combining form of Greek thēkē "case, receptacle;" see theco-), probably on model of biblioteca "library."
1660s, "round, approximately flat surface," from Latin discus "quoit, discus, disk," from Greek diskos "disk, quoit, platter," related to dikein "to throw" (see discus).
The American English preferred spelling; also see disc. From 1803 as "thin, circular plate;" sense of "phonograph disk" is by 1888; computing sense is from 1947. Disk jockey first recorded 1941; dee-jay is from 1955; DJ is by 1961; video version veejay is from 1982. Disk-drive is from 1952.
1995, initialism (acronym) from Digital Video Disc, later changed to Digital Versatile Disc.
Earlier this year, electronics giant Toshiba positioned the first DVD players available in the U.S. as a home entertainment unit (retail price $600). [Black Enterprise magazine, June 1997]
symbolic magic circle used by Buddhists in meditation, 1859, from Sanskrit mandala "disc, circle." Adopted 20c. in Jungian psychology as a symbol of unity of the self and completeness.
