"chad"--a possible origin

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 19 Nov 2000, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> I don't think for a second that _chad_ has an acronymic etymology,
> but the answer to the second quesion is surely that computer
> types often use amusing unetymological plurals; there are various
> words with _-im_ plurals, such as _frobnitz, frobnitzim_, and
> even more with _-en_ plurals, such as _Vax, Vaxen._

I agree with Jesse that an acronymic etymology is very unlikely.  If it's
an acronym, why are none of the earliest examples (including 1947 and 1962
citations I have looked at that are not included in Barry's post)
capitalized and why do none of them refer to an acronymic derivation?

Fred Shapiro


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