The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #27767   Message #341851
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
16-Nov-00 - 02:37 PM
Thread Name: BS: INCOMPETENTS part 2
Subject: RE: BS: INCOMPETENTS part 2
Chad drift - if you've been wondering about the word, here's a suggestion I found on a link from The Guardian(London):

The New Hacker Hacker's Dictionary explains a possible origin for the word chad:
One correspondent believes chad ... derives from the Chadless keypunch (named for its inventor), which cut little u-shaped tabs in the card to make a hole when the tab folded back, rather than punching out a circle/rectangle; it was clear that if the Chadless keypunch didn't make them, then the stuff that other keypunches made had to be `chad'

Alternatively could it be anything to do with the graffiti character who appeared on walls all over Britain during the war, complaining about shortgaes, who was universally known as Chad. "Wot no ..." he'd say, a little round half circle with crosses for eyes on a line representing the wall he was supposed to be loooking over. "Wot, no President?" he might be saying now.