the.com/doc
The file extension that outlived the empire it built.
means A shortened form of 'document' — or, more specifically, the .doc file extension that became the default format for Microsoft Word files.
from Simply short for 'document,' from Latin documentum (a lesson, proof, or official paper), itself from docere, 'to teach.' Microsoft adopted .doc as the three-letter file extension for Word documents starting in the 1980s, back when DOS systems limited extensions to three characters. The clipped suffix stuck around so long, and spread so widely as the de facto standard for office files, that it outlasted both the technical limitation that created it and, eventually, Word's own native use of the format (replaced by .docx in the mid-2000s).
- microsoft legacy
- Replaced by docx in 2007, still haunts every inbox
- binary format
- Stored as proprietary binary, not readable plain text
- slang doubling
- Also means doctor, context does all the work
- compatibility tax
- Opening old docs in new word still glitches formatting