chad

chad /chad/ n.  1. The perforated edge strips on printer
   paper, after they have been separated from the printed portion.
   Also called {selvage} and {perf}.  2. obs. The confetti-like
   paper bits punched out of cards or paper tape; this has also been
   called `chaff', `computer confetti', and `keypunch
   droppings'.  This use may now be mainstream; it has been reported
   seen (1993) in directions for a card-based voting machine in
   California.

   Historical note: One correspondent believes `chad' (sense 2)
   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'.  There is an
   legend that the word was originally acronymic, standing for
   "Card Hole Aggregate Debris", but this has all the earmarks of
   a bogus folk etymology.