Word for an object that undergoes a removal?

Question

What would be one word (noun) to describe something that undergoes a removal (has something removed from it)? For example, something that undergoes multiplication is a multiplicand. Something that undergoes an absence is an absentee. However neither removend or removee sound correct.

Examples:

• The duplicates were removed from the removend.

• I removed 30 objects from the removend.

I want to know so I can have better (and more general) variable names than stuff like list_with_duplicates.

I'm not looking for the name of the stuff that is removed from the group, I am looking for a word for the group that the objects will be removed from.

Answer 1

The thing from which something is subtracted is the minuend:-

The quantity from which another quantity, the subtrahend, is to be subtracted. In the equation 50 - 16 = 34, the minuend is 50. [American Heritage Dictionary]

As explained in the above definition, the thing subtracted is the subtrahend:-

A quantity or number to be subtracted from another. [American Heritage Dictionary]

So you could say the duplicates were removed from the minuend.

Answer 2

There are a number of words, but they tend to have connotations attached to specific contexts. There is remainder:

I smashed the country and western CDs in the music collection, but I still listen to the remainder.

In the law, the remainder is what's left of your estate after creditors and the tax man get through with it. In mathematics, it's what's left over after long division, as in "when you divide 11 by 7, the remainder is 4."

You could use remnant, if you don't mind the connotation of the left-over portion being small. The same with residue, which has its use as a term of art in chemistry to designate what's left over after a chemical reaction. Residue also has a definition in the mathematical field of complex analysis.

The word imported from Latin, residuum, is a more general term, and the OED finds uses of the residual as a noun meaning the "product of a residuum.

Answer 3

You can consider redundant

redundant(adj.)

characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition

[Dictionary.com]

or

superfluous

superfluous (adj.)

beyond what is needed : not necessary

[Merriam-Webster]

Update

Your examples can be re-written as :

• I removed 30 redundant objects

• The superfluous entries were removed.

If you are looking for a noun specifically, inessential(in the noun form) could fit the bill, though it may sound a little contrived.

inessential (noun)

a thing that is not absolutely necessary.

Source:Google

Thus, you can probably say,

• The duplicates were removed from the inessential.

• I removed 30 objects from the inessential.