disc

disc¹ flat round object, record

Forms

disc n (plural discuri)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the flat round object is borrowed from French disque and Latin discus, the sources that DEX, MDA2, DELR and the DLR name.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary gives French alone, and calls the French word a learned loan of the Latin one.^[1] The Latin noun was borrowed from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “quoit”).^[6][1] Its further origin is unclear: Babiniotis keeps the old derivation from δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to throw”), which Furnée doubted, proposing a Pre-Greek origin instead.^[7][1]

DELR treats this word and the church word for the paten (homograph 2) as one entry with two etymologies.^[4] DEX, MDA2 and the DLR separate them.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first quotation in MDA2 and the DLR is from an undated history of America, on the discs the Peruvians wore at the nose.^[3][5] In 1832 a periodical describes the passage of a planet across the disc of the sun.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of a flat round object led to the visible disc of a heavenly body, recorded from 1832, and Eminescu writes of the moon's disc as ruler of the waters.^[5][8] Later came the discus of athletics, the circular railway signal, the disc of a plough and the record for sound.^[2][9] Medicine added the intervertebral disc, and computing the magnetic disk.^[2][10] The family grew with the record and the computer: discofil from 1960, compact-disc from 1984, dischetă “floppy disk” from 1988.^[4]

Timeline

• 1832 – the disc of the sun, in a periodical.^[5]
• 1862 – discoid “disc-shaped”, from French.^[4]
• 1960 – discofil “record collector”.^[4]
• 1964 – discal “of the intervertebral discs”.^[4]
• 1984 – compact-disc.^[4]
• 1988 – dischetă “floppy disk”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A discus: the heavy flat round plate that athletes throw; the throwing event itself.^[2]
2. Any flat round object: plug cu disc “disc plough”, discul lui Newton “Newton's disc”.^[2][3]
3. A round movable railway signal that tells a train to slow down.^[2]
4. A record for sound; the music recorded on it.^[2]
5. A magnetic or optical disk for storing data.^[10]
6. The visible disc of the Sun or the Moon.^[3][9]
7. disc intervertebral: the cartilage between two vertebrae, as in hernie de disc “slipped disc”.^[2]

Word family

• compact-disc
• discal
• dischetă
• discită
• discofilie
• discografie
• discoid
• discopatie
• discotecă

disc² paten

Forms

disc n (plural discuri)^[1] The older form is discos (plural discose): „potir de argintu cu discos cu dzveadzdă și cu lingure” “a silver chalice with a paten, with a star and with spoons” (1588).^[11][12] Dosoftei uses it in his liturgy: „De-acii diaconul deșartă de pre svântul discos în svântul potir” “then the deacon empties [it] from the holy paten into the holy chalice”.^[11]

Etymology

The word for the church dish is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic дискосъ (diskosŭ) or дискъ (diskŭ), the Slavonic forms of Byzantine Greek δίσκος (dískos), as DELR, DEX and MDA2 state.^[4][2][12] Ciorănescu, after Murnu, takes it from Greek partly through Slavonic, and Tiktin, Scriban and the DLR give both the Greek and the Slavonic word.^{[13][8][14][11]} Cihac thought it came straight from Modern Greek.^[15] Medieval Greek used the word of the holy dish of the church.^[16] DER lists Aromanian discu beside it.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a document of 1588 that names a silver chalice „cu discos”, with a paten.^[4][11][8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the dish of gold or silver on which the consecrated bread is laid; from it came the plate carried round the church to collect money, and the phrases a umbla cu discul and a cere cu discul “to take a collection”.^[12][2] Tiktin compares this plate with the collection bag of Western churches, and Scriban notes that the collection with the plate in Romanian churches was abolished in 1906.^[8][14] MDA2 also records the extended sense “small flat plate”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1588 – discos in a document, the first record.^[4][11]
• 1652 – discos among church objects in a text quoted by Murnu.^[11]
• 1660 – discos in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[17]
• c. 1700 – the consecrated bread „în mijlocul discosului” “in the middle of the paten”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Christianity) The paten, the gold or silver dish on which the consecrated bread is placed.^[2][12]
2. The plate carried round a church to collect money offerings: a umbla cu discul “to take a collection”.^[2][12]
3. (by extension) A small flat plate.^[12]