<html><head></head><body>On the off chance that 'chad' might be a term in
the paper-making industry, I called my brother who worked for International
Paper near Texarkana for over 20 years. He had never heard the word until
the Florida events threatened to undermine the aspirations of his Governor,
but he immediately thought of the word 'chat' for the gravel that is used
in resurfacing country roads in that area. The chat comes from steel mills
in northeast Texas that process locally mined iron ore. He doubted, as do
I, that this chat offers a solid enough base on which to build an etymology
for our 'chad'.<br>
He mentioned another word that is interesting, but unrelated to chat/chad.
As paper is being rolled into huge 20' rolls to be cut later into widths
appropriate for orders on hand, if the paper breaks, they roll the paper
off into a compartment in the basement, where it is chopped up and fed back
into the production system. They call this paper 'broke' (noun), but I failed
to inquire about count/noncount usage. So, in some areas, Douglas, 'chat'
as gravel is well known and the Scottish term not known at all.<br>
DMLance<br>
<br>
Douglas G. Wilson wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:5.0.0.25.0.20001119162711.00a90af0@127.0.0.1">
<blockquote type="cite">>The origin from Scots "chad" =<br>>"gravel" offered in Webster's Third (1961) seems reasonable to me.<br><br>This is true. But, in subsequent publications they (MW) have preferred<br>"origin unknown." So, too: OED-as #1 and AHD.<br><br>I'd like to know more about the MW 1947 quote.<br></blockquote>
<br>
I think Webster's Third said "possibly" or something like that. Presumably<br>
there is no firmly established origin, but of the hypotheses I've seen<br>
proposed, I like this one. Robert Hendrickson presents a possibly<br>
indistinguishable one: "chad" < "chat" = "gravel"/"mining refuse", but MW<br>
seems more authoritative and this "chat" is a VERY obscure word (might as<br>
well be Scots!) ....<br>
<br>
I don't have a quote from MW. I just note that the date 1947 is given in<br>
the MW on-line dictionary: presumably the MW editors could produce a quote.<br>
<br>
-- Doug Wilson<br>
</blockquote>
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