chad

Etymology 1

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

noun

1. (uncountable) Small pieces of paper punched out from the edges of continuous stationery, or from ballot papers, paper tape, punched cards, etc.
   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. 1 June 2011, David P. Mikkelson, “Chad: Does the word ‘chad’ come from the Chadless keypunch, invented by a Mr. Chadless?”, in Snopes.com, retrieved 2016-09-07
2. (countable) One of these pieces of paper.
   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. 20 May 1939, Ross A. Lake, Printing Perforating Telegraph Apparatus, US Patent 2255794
   The small hinged discs of paper, called ‘chad’, remain attached to the body of the tape. 1959, J[ohn] W[illiam] Freebody, Telegraphy, London: Isaac Pitman & Sons, →OCLC
   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. 12 December 2000, Supreme Court of the United States, per curiam, “Bush v. Gore”, in United States Reports, volume 531, page 98 at 105

Etymology 2

noun

1. (Internet slang, seduction community, incel slang) Alternative spelling of Chad (“alpha-male; a virile man”)