Questions for English Majors

[James Knott]

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:

>      5.25" floppies were originally (at least they used to be) called
>      floppy diskettes, which could be derived from disc (i.e., a small
>      disc), with the 'c' changed to 'k' to preserve the hard
>      sound. It's possible that diskette was then shortened to
>      disk. Does anyone have any old American references (perhaps old
>      stereo magazines; my collection from the early 70s disappeared in
>      one of my moves) to see what whas used before computer disks
>      became common?
> 

I was just browsing through the Jan 1977 issue of Byte magazine.  They 
use the term "disk" for both hard drive and 8" floppies.  I believe 
"diskette" was originally used to refer to the 5.25" in floppies.
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