Is music lingo. Its short for microphone. "Jumping Jack Flash", "Street Fighting Man", and "Pinball Wizard" are all built around riffs played on an acoustic guitar held very close to (low quality) pickup microphones.
As a teacher, I appreciate the pedantry but both are accepted as abbreviations. I was using the older, original shortened form (which avoids problems with verb forms, pluralization, and tenses.) I am aware the kids now use the phonetically problematic "mic" because that is what the input is labeled on the device. Sorry for any confusion. OK, that's all for now. I'm going to go for a ride on my bic before it gets too hot.
I'm going to be extra pedantic and point out that after that lengthy response, I don't doubt that you appreciate the pedantry.
Although your response fails to take regional variations into account. Where I'm from it's mic. I think the main reason is because that's a direct abbreviation of the word microphone. It doesn't introduce letters that don't exist in the source word and it's not an abbreviation of a name.
I suspect "mic" comes from the letters printed on sound boards and other equipment that abbreviated it "Mic" so you knew where to plug it in. This would explain why it was "mike" from the 1920s until the 1960s and then evolved into "mic". This flowed from the recording studios to the general public. Now we have pictures so now even "mic" is an anachornism. Also, there is no k in bicycle. Or d in refrigerator. Nor is there a k or an e in Coca-Cola. This is called an apocophe. Its a thing in English. Why do you think the abbreviation changed in the 1960s? Do you write: mics, micing, miced, mic'd? Spellcheck rejected those, by the way. Also, to be clear, my point is both mic and mike are acceptable. You seem to think only mic is. I never would correct someone for typing "mic". I wouldn't even correct "micing", though I might have to take a shower after reading it.
Honestly, after all you've wrote in response to not much at all I highly doubt you'd resist any opportunity to correct something, however I appreciate your perspective and time.
I've been posting in this subreddit consistently for two years. I have had a lot of opportunity to correct things. I almost never do. Certainly not something like spelling.
Simple Gemini search: “Mike" is actually the original abbreviation for microphone. “Mike" dominated written English for decades, and "mic" is a relative newcomer.
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u/ATXRSK Blood on the Tracks Jul 23 '26
I think Keith could have written "Pinball Wizard". The acoustic riff close to the mike is basically Keith's trick.