Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗Unsolicited bulk electronic messages. · Any undesired electronic content automatically generated for commercial purposes. · Excessive, often unwanted and repeated online messages. · Ellipsis of spam account.
To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages.) · To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages) to a person or entity. · To send messages repeatedly, often with disruptive effect; to flood. · To do something rapidly and repeatedly.
The original sense (canned ham) is a proprietary name registered by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in U.S., 1937. It is presumed to be a conflation of either "spiced ham" or "shoulder of pork and ham" but was soon extended to other kinds of canned meat. Hormel spells the trademarked name in all upper case. The use for unsolicited and unwanted email derives from a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch. In the 1970 sketch, a group of Vikings in a restaurant repeatedly chant the word "spam". The earliest recorded real-life use for this sense occurs around 1993 which finds reference in a newsgroup post dated March 31, 1993, but the term may have been in use on "Multi-User Dungeons" (MUDs) in the 1980s.
This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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