chad

Mounds of chads generated from punch cards

Uncertain; possibly from the English slang term chat (“louse”). The word predates the Chadless punch, which therefore cannot be its origin,[1] and a derivation from Scots chad (“river gravel”) stated in some dictionaries is now thought to be nothing more than guesswork.[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tʃæd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /tʃæd/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æd

chad (countable and uncountable, plural chad or chads)[3]

1. (uncountable) Small pieces of paper punched out from the edges of continuous stationery, or from ballot papers, paper tape, punched cards, etc.
   • 2011 June 1, David P. Mikkelson, “Chad: Does the word ‘chad’ come from the Chadless keypunch, invented by a Mr. Chadless?”, in Snopes.com‎, retrieved 7 September 2016:

     The keypunch wasn't named after a Mr. Chadless; it was so named because, as expected, it punched tape while producing little or no chad.

2. (countable) One of these pieces of paper.
   • 1939 May 20, Ross A. Lake, Printing Perforating Telegraph Apparatus‎, US Patent 2255794:

     Prior devices of the type according to the present invention have been arranged to cut out the perforations completely at a single movement, thereby producing chads or waste material which often present difficult problems of disposal.

   • 1959, J[ohn] W[illiam] Freebody, Telegraphy, London: Isaac Pitman & Sons, OCLC 892562842:

     The small hinged discs of paper, called ‘chad’, remain attached to the body of the tape.

   • 2000 December 12, Supreme Court of the United States, per curiam, “'Bush v. Gore'”, in United States Reports, volume 531, page 98 at 105:

     Much of the controversy seems to revolve around ballot cards designed to be perforated by a stylus but which, either through error or deliberate omission, have not been perforated with sufficient precision for a machine to count them. In some cases a piece of the card—a chad—is hanging, say by two corners. In other cases there is no separation at all, just an indentation.

• Appendix:American Dialect Society words of the year

From ch- +‎ had, from ich + had.

chad

1. (West Country, obsolete) I had
   • 1839, An Exmoor Scolding, London: John Russell Smith, page 11:

     Chad et in my meend, and zo chave still. Bet chawnt drow et out bevore tha begen'st agen, and than chell.

chad (plural chads)

1. (slang, chiefly Internet) Alternative spelling of Chad (“alpha-male; sexually promiscuous man”)

See ch-.

chad

1. I had

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qaRta (“outsiders, alien people”). Cognate with Lamboya ata, Cebuano agta, Tagalog agta.

• IPA^(key): /ʔað/

chad

1. person

• IPA^(key): /χaːd/

chad

1. Aspirate mutation of cad.