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Glite Dictionary
swinging chad

swinging chad

9.9
A small paper piece on a voting card still attached at two corners that makes a vote unclear
  • noun
  • /ˈswɪŋɪŋ tʃæd/
  • Archaic
translation icon : chad colgante
  • Election officials carefully inspected each swinging chad to determine if a vote had been properly cast.

Examples

  • The controversy centered around whether ballots with swinging chads should be counted as valid votes.

  • The recount revealed several ballots with swinging chads that complicated the final results.

  • The swinging chad caused a major controversy during the election.

  • Many ballots had a swinging chad that confused the counting process.

  • The election officials examined the ballots for any swinging chad that could lead to disputed results.

  • Voters were concerned that the presence of a swinging chad could affect the final vote count.

  • In the close election, a swinging chad was found which might change the outcome if not properly addressed.

Surface Forms

swinging chad singular
swinging chads plural

Morphology

swinging + chad

The compound is directly compositional: 'chad' denotes a tiny punched paper piece and 'swinging' describes moving back and forth, so a 'swinging chad' is readily interpreted as a chad that is still attached and moving (i.e., incompletely removed). Although 'chad' is relatively low-frequency, if a B1 learner knows both constituents they can infer the ballot-related implication (causing uncertainty) from the literal image.

Etymology

The noun swinging chad comes from old voting cards where a small square of paper called a chad was not fully punched out and could still swing on one or two corners. Because that little piece hung and moved, it was hard to know if the voter had clearly marked their choice, so the term now means a ballot mark that is 'uncertain'.