balloonian variable

n. [Commodore users; perh. a deliberate phonetic mangling of boolean
variable ?] Any variable that doesn't actually hold or control state, but
must nevertheless be declared, checked, or set. A typical balloonian
variable started out as a flag attached to some environment feature that
either became obsolete or was planned but never implemented. Compatibility
concerns (or politics attached to same) may require that such a flag be
treated as though it were live.

