spam

C1 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈspæm/ See IPA manual

Freq #15519

Meanings

1

noun
Unwanted emails or messages, usually advertising, sent to many people at once.

I get far too much spam in my inbox every day.
2

verb
To send unwanted messages or emails to many people.

The company was fined for spamming millions of users.
3

verb
To do something rapidly and repeatedly, often annoyingly.

Stop spamming the chat with the same message.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · unwanted emails or... junk mail

Word family

Derived forms antispamantispammerblamdespamnonspampicspamspamblockspamblogspambotspamdexingspamferencespamfic

Simplified etymology

Spam was formed in the mid-20th century by blending spiced with ham.

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…

Topics

People & Society

External links

# spam

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈspæm/
**Frequency rank:** 15519

## Meanings
1. Unwanted emails or messages, usually advertising, sent to many people at once.
2. To send unwanted messages or emails to many people.
3. To do something rapidly and repeatedly, often annoyingly.

## Examples
- I get far too much spam in my inbox every day.
- The company was fined for spamming millions of users.
- Stop spamming the chat with the same message.

## Derived Forms
- antispam
- antispammer
- blam
- despam
- nonspam
- picspam
- spamblock
- spamblog
- spambot
- spamdexing
- spamference
- spamfic

## 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…

## AI Etymology
For spam, 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 surrounding word family includes derived forms such as antispam, antispammer, blam, and despam. In present use it covers unwanted emails or messages, usually advertising, sent to many people at once, to send unwanted messages or emails to many people, and to do something rapidly and repeatedly, often annoyingly.

## Topics
- People & Society

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