Akademik

n.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail messages.

"A commission appointed by Gov. Jim Gilmore has recommended imposing criminal and civil penalties, including possible jail terms, for sending spam using Internet service providers based in Virginia."

— Matt Richtel, "Virgina Panel Recommends Tough New Penalties on Spam, The New York Times

Spam originally meant "flooding a [Usenet] newsgroup with irrelevant or inappropriate messages" (The Jargon File). This original sense derived from the overuse of the word "spam" in a sketch performed by Monty Python's Flying Circus. The sketch begins as follows:

Mr. Bun: Morning.

Waitress: Morning.

Mr. Bun: Well, what you got?

Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage

and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam; egg,

bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and

spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam; spam,

sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam, tomato and

spam; spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; (Vikings start

singing in background) spam, spam, spam, spam, spam,

spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam...

In recent years, the use of "spam" expanded to include unsolicited commercial e-mail. In case you don't know, spam is a luncheon meat consisting of compressed pork shoulder with a bit of ham tossed in. It is produced by Hormel Foods: http://www.hormel.com/ who even have an Official Spam Home Page: http://www.spam.com/.

Spam