lint
n.n. a small piece of cloth or paper that comes off your clothes or paper when you wash them. In computing, it also means extra code or files that a program creates but does not need to run.
n. a small piece of fibrous material, such as cotton or paper, that separates from a fabric or paper during washing or processing. In a computing context, it refers to temporary files, redundant code, or other digital debris that is not essential for the primary function of a system.
I always find a lot of lint in my pockets after washing my jeans.
The developer spent the afternoon cleaning up the project folder by removing all the unnecessary lint files.
While the physical lint from laundry is a minor nuisance, digital lint can significantly slow down a system's performance if not managed through regular maintenance and automated cleanup tools.
From Middle English lynet, linet, from Old French linette (“grain of flax”), diminutive of lin (“flax”); or, from Medieval Latin linteum, from Latin līnum (“flax”).
From the lint Unix utility, written in 1979, which analyses programs written in the C language, itself named after the undesirable bits of fiber and fluff found in sheep's wool (see etymology 1).