713: spam Nov 20, 2016

Which came first, the unwanted mail, spam, or the unwanted ham, Spam? Unlike many other words explored on Word Facts, 'spam' does not date back to Latin, Old English, or even Middle English; the earliest 'spam' was in 1937, when the meat-product was first produced. The use of the word as a reference to unwanted mail originated with a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch in which the cast chants 'Spam' so much as to interrupt the other speech.