The origin of the word spam

Here we are dear readers! We survived Christmas and I am happy to start a new year full of energy. One of the things that you have to do when you returned from a large stage of holidays is to open the mailbox and read your mail. Then you find an old friend, yes I am talking about spam, a large mailing list that you don’t know the author and can’t do anything to avoid it. The only thing you can do is be patient and erase one by one from your mailbox.
Do you know what the origin of the word ‘spam’ is? Well, we are going to find out this meaning or at least we’ll try it.


It seems that spam is a word which came from USA. Around 1930 Hormel Foods’ company launched a new product, a kind of meat with several ingredients. Hormel’s Spiced Ham became Spam. This product was a big revolution because it was the first canned meat without the need to keep it with a fridge. This fact was a revolution especially in the World Wars period. It developed into the main food of the English and Soviets soldiers. And for the rest of people, for many years, it was the only canned meat at a time of food shortages.
Later in 70’s Monty Python started to use this word in different humour sketches and in TV ads, they used to shout the word ‘spam’ very often like in this gag:

This habit was applied to define the ‘rubbish mailing’ or the ‘unwanted mailing’ in the Internet era. Sometimes the origin of words could be fascinating and unbelievable as well.