Design patterns·The named ways it goes wrong
the component is fully wired in, fully maintained, and used by exactly nothing, kept because it might be needed.
Boat anchor
Also calledboat anchor anti-pattern, kept for later
A piece of the system retained for a future use that has not arrived, still carrying maintenance, build time and dependency risk. It differs from dead code in intent — it was kept deliberately — which is what makes it harder to delete, because someone will defend it. The counter-argument is always the same: version control is where things you might need later belong.