35 lines
4.6 KiB
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35 lines
4.6 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>chad</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../C.html" title="C"/><link rel="previous" href="cdr.html" title="cdr"/><link rel="next" href="chad-box.html" title="chad box"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">chad</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="cdr.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="chad-box.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="chad"/><dt xmlns="" id="chad"><b>chad</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/chad/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [common] The perforated edge strips on printer paper, after they
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have been separated from the printed portion. Also called
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<a href="../S/selvage.html"><i class="glossterm">selvage</i></a>, <a href="../P/perf.html"><i class="glossterm">perf</i></a>, and
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<a href="../R/ripoff.html"><i class="glossterm">ripoff</i></a>.</p></dd><dd><p> 2. The confetti-like paper bits punched out of cards or paper tape;
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this has also been called <span class="firstterm">chaff</span>,
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<span class="firstterm">computer confetti</span>, and <span class="firstterm">keypunch droppings</span>. It's reported that this
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was very old Army slang (associated with teletypewriters before the
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computer era), and has been occasionally sighted in directions for
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punched-card vote tabulators long after it passed out of live use among
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computer programmers in the late 1970s. This sense of ‘chad’
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returned to the mainstream during the finale of the hotly disputed
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U.S. presidential election in 2000 via stories about the Florida vote
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recounts. Note however that in the revived mainstream usage chad is not a
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mass noun and ‘a chad’ is a single piece of the stuff.</p></dd><dd><p>There is an urban legend that <span class="firstterm">chad</span> (sense 2) derives from the Chadless
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keypunch (named for its inventor), which cut little u-shaped tabs in the
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card to make a hole when the tab folded back, rather than punching out a
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circle/rectangle; it was clear that if the Chadless keypunch didn't make
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them, then the stuff that other keypunches made had to be
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‘chad’. However, serious attempts to track down
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“<span class="quote">Chadless</span>” as a personal name or U.S. trademark have failed,
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casting doubt on this etymology — and the U.S. Patent Classification
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System uses “<span class="quote">chadless</span>” (small c) as an adjective, suggesting
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that “<span class="quote">chadless</span>” derives from “<span class="quote">chad</span>” and not the
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other way around. There is another legend that the word was originally
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acronymic, standing for “<span class="quote">Card Hole Aggregate Debris</span>”, but this
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has all the earmarks of a <a href="../B/backronym.html"><i class="glossterm">backronym</i></a>. It has also
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been noted that the word “<span class="quote">chad</span>” is Scots dialect for gravel,
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but nobody has proposed any plausible reason that card chaff should be
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thought of as gravel. None of these etymologies is really
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plausible.</p><div class="mediaobject"><a id="crunchly74-12-31"/><img src="../graphics/74-12-31.png"/><div class="caption"><p>This is <span class="emphasis"><em>one</em></span> way to be
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<a href="chad.html"><i class="glossterm">chad</i></a>less.</p><p>(The next cartoon in the Crunchly saga is
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<a href="../B/bit-bucket.html#crunchly75-10-04">75-10-04</a>. The previous
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cartoon was <a href="../W/winged-comments.html#crunchly74-12-29">74-12-29</a>.)</p></div></div></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="cdr.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="chad-box.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">cdr<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>chad box</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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