Discus: The words 'discus,' 'disc,'… | etymologist.ai
discus
/ˈdɪskəs/·noun·1656·Established
Origin
From Greek 'diskos' (a thing thrown) — named for what you do with it, not its shape. Later generalized to any flat disc.
Definition
A heavy disc thrown in athletic competitions for distance; also, the throwing event itself; historically, a circular stone or metal plate thrown in ancient Greek athletic games.
The Full Story
Greek1650swell-attested
From Latin 'discus,' borrowed from Greek 'diskos' (a quoit, a round plate, a disc thrown in athletic competition), from 'dikein' (to throw, to cast), from PIE *dik- or *deyḱ- (to throw, alternatively to show by throwing). The primary meaning in Greek was 'something thrown' — the disc was named for its function, not its shape. From the same root the Latinised form 'discus' generalised to mean any flat circular object, eventually giving rise to 'disk' and 'disc' (as in compact disc), 'dish' (from Old
. The word's journey from Greek athletic terminology to the hard drive in your laptop is one of the more extraordinary semantic trajectories in English — the same root