Spam | Define Spam at Dictionary.com
Spam
a canned food product consisting especially of pork formed into a solid block.
noun
2.
(lowercase) Digital Technology. disruptive online messages, especially commercial messages posted on a computer network or sent as email.
verb (used with object), spammed, spamming.
3.
(lowercase) Digital Technology. to send spam to.
4.
(lowercase) Digital Technology. to execute (an action) or use (an item) rapidly or repeatedly in a video game:
Spam the attack button as soon as the fight begins.
verb (used without object), spammed, spamming.
5.
(lowercase) Digital Technology. to send spam.
Origin of Spam
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1990-1995
(def 1) sp(iced) + (h)am 1; (other defs.) 1990-95; probably referring to a comedy routine on Monty Python's Flying Circus, British TV series, in which the word Spam is used repeatedly
Related forms
Examples from the Web for Spam
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Contemporary Examples
Facing accusations of censorship, Yahoo quickly explained the problem “was not intentional & caught by our Spam filters.”
Sex in the Time of GPS Clark Harding January 31, 2010
Eastwood then proceeds to step into his kitchen and talk to a can of Spam.
Little Brother Cory Doctorow
Now, take a ton of email that's not Spam -- in the biz, they call that "ham" -- and do the same.
British Dictionary definitions for Spam
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verb spams, spamming, spammed
1.
to send unsolicited electronic mail or text messages simultaneously to a number of e-mail addresses or mobile phones
noun
unsolicited electronic mail or text messages sent in this way
Derived Forms
spammer, noun
Word Origin
C20: from the repeated use of the word Spam in a popular sketch from the British television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, first broadcast in 1969
Spam
trademark a kind of tinned luncheon meat, made largely from pork
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for Spam
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spam
n.
proprietary name registered by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in U.S., 1937; probably a conflation of spiced ham. Soon extended to other kinds of canned meat. In the sense of "Internet junk mail" it was coined by Usenet users after March 31, 1993, when Usenet administrator Richard Depew inadvertently posted the same message 200 times to a discussion group. The term had been used in online text games, and it was from the comedy routine in British TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (beloved by many intellectual geeks) where a restaurant's menu items all devolve into spam.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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spam definition
Unsolicited, undesired e-mail . Also used as a verb. Spam is the e-mail version of junk mail.
Note: The name comes from a Monty Python comedy skit about a restaurant that served only Spam.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Slang definitions & phrases for Spam
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spam
verb
To send a computer message out to myriad people: the cost to spam an advertisement in thousands of news groups is typically less than $50/ Spamming. Sending out on the Internet the cyberspace equivalent of junk mail
[1990s+ Computer; fr Spam, trademark for a brand of canned meat, which acquired a probably undeserved unsavory reputation among WWII troops]
The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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1.
(From Hormel's Spiced Ham, via the Monty Python "Spam" song) To post irrelevant or inappropriate messages to one or more Usenet newsgroups , mailing lists , or other messaging system in deliberate or accidental violation of netiquette .
It is possible to spam a newsgroup with one well- (or ill-) planned message, e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women.  This can be done by cross-post ing, e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups.  (Compare troll and flame bait ).
Posting a message to a significant proportion of all newsgroups is a sure way to spam Usenet and become an object of almost universal hatred.  Canter and Siegel spammed the net with their Green card post.
If you see an article which you think is a deliberate spam, DO NOT post a follow-up - doing so will only contribute to the general annoyance.  Send a polite message to the poster by private e-mail and CC it to "postmaster" at the same address. Bear in mind that the posting's origin might have been forged or the apparent sender's account might have been used by someone else without his permission.
The word was coined as the winning entry in a 1937 competition to choose a name for Hormel Foods Corporation's "spiced meat" (now officially known as "SPAM luncheon meat").  Correspondant Bob White claims the modern use of the term predates Monty Python by at least ten years.  He cites an editor for the Dallas Times Herald describing Public Relations as "throwing a can of spam into an electric fan just to see if any of it would stick to the unwary passersby."