discotheque n.

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.

before vowels thec-, word-forming element used in botany and zoology with the sense "case, capsule," from Latinized combining form of Greek thēkē "case, receptacle," from PIE *dhek-, suffixed form of root *dhe- "to set, put."

1964, American English shortening of discotheque; sense extended by 1972 to the kind of dance music played there and the subculture of urban night-clubs built around it in the 1970s. As an adjective by 1965.