disc [M17th] The word disc goes back via Latin discus to Greek diskos used for any flat round object, a dish, and the face of the sun, as well as a discus [L16th] and also *dish and Late Middle English desk (discus had come to be used for a stool or table in medieval Latin). Its earliest sense in English was the seemingly flat, round form that the sun, moon, and other celestial objects present to the eye. The anatomical disc, the sort that people ‘slip’, dates from the mid 19th century, while the type that turns on a record player is late 19th century. In the USA the usual spelling is disk, and this is now used everywhere with reference to computers [M20th], as in disk drive. See also jockey.