Word
floppy disk
Definition
compound. a small, square plastic object used in the past to store computer information. You cannot store much on them compared to modern USB drives.
compound. a flexible, magnetic storage medium encased in a square plastic shell, widely used from the 1970s to the late 1990s. Now largely obsolete, though the icon remains the universal symbol for saving data.
Examples
“I found an old floppy disk in my desk drawer.”
“Before high-speed internet and cloud storage, students had to carry a floppy disk to the computer lab to print their essays.”
“While the physical floppy disk has vanished from modern hardware, its legacy persists in software interfaces where a 3.5-inch diskette icon still represents the 'save' command for millions of users.”
Examples
simple
“I found an old floppy disk in my desk drawer.”
contextual
“Before high-speed internet and cloud storage, students had to carry a floppy disk to the computer lab to print their essays.”
complex
“While the physical floppy disk has vanished from modern hardware, its legacy persists in software interfaces where a 3.5-inch diskette icon still represents the 'save' command for millions of users.”
Usage
Often shortened to 'floppy' in informal technical contexts.
Etymology
A compound of the adjective floppy and the noun disk. The name refers to the flexible nature of the magnetic storage medium used in the original eight-inch format, which lacked the rigid casing of later iterations.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/floppy-disk