"floppy disk"--why "floppy"?

[Frank Abate]

The early floppies that were used on big IBM mainframes were 8 inches
square, much bigger than the later common (now obsolete) 5.25-inch ones, and
of course bigger than the now still used 3.5-inch ones in the hard plastic
case.  These big 8-inch ones had the same flimsy plastic sleeve covering the
magnetic medium as the 5.25-inch.  Some of these early ones might well have
had paper sleeves.  In any case, since they were so big, relatively
speaking, that they were pretty "floppy".

Still, "flexy" would have been a nicer choice.  But too late now.

Frank Abate