spam meaning (rare): definition, etymology and quotations

spam

noun

/ˈspæm/ · [ˈspeəm]

Etymology

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.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Internet, Rare Unsolicited bulk electronic messages.

I get far too much spam.
I received 58 spams yesterday.

1 more example

In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Internet Any undesired electronic content automatically generated for commercial purposes.

An Act to provide for the control of spam, which is unsolicited commercial communications sent in bulk by electronic mail or by text or multi-media messaging to mobile telephone numbers, and to provide for matters connected therewith.Long title, Spam Control Act (Cap. 311A, R. Ed. 2008)

Internet Excessive, often unwanted and repeated online messages.

Internet, Abbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of spam account.

Video games Broadly, Often A large quantity or multitude of anything done repetitively or considered unusually or indiscriminately repetitive.

A type of tinned meat made mainly from ham.

Derived terms: 43 terms
antispam, antispammer, blam, despam, ghost spam, hailstorm spam, nonspam, picspam, referral spam, snowshoe spam, spamblock, spamblog, spambot, spamdexing, spamference, spamfic, spam in a can, spamless, spamlike, spammage, spammation, spammer, spamming, spammish, spammy, spamouflage, spamproof, spamsilog, spamtard, spamtrap, spamvertise, spamvertisement, spamvertiser, spamvertising, spamvertizement, spamwich, spim, sping, splog, spoetry, sporgery, unspam, webspam
Hyponyms: blogspam, link spam, log spam, mass spam, referrer spam, social spam, spam killer, spam musubi, spam relay
Meronyms: e-mail, email

spam

verb

Etymology

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Internet To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages.)

Transformed by programming ineptitude into a monster of Frankenstein proportions, it broke loose on the night of March 31, 1993 and proceeded to spam news.admin.policy with something on the order of 200 messages in which it attempted, and failed, to cancel its own messages.1993 March 31, Joel Furr, “ARMM: ARMM: >>>>Ad Infinitum”, in alt.folklore.computers (Usenet), message-ID <d5SlxvmhmNwJ>:

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Internet To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic messages) to a person or entity.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Internet To send messages repeatedly, often with disruptive effect; to flood.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences, Video games Broadly To do something rapidly and repeatedly.

Stop spamming that special attack!
Spam the Z key to get a speed boost.

Derived terms: spammable, unspammable, unspammed
Related terms: Official SPAM home page

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