[Ads-l] Antedatings and Etymological Speculation Concerning "Spam" (Computing)

Sat Oct 5 18:22:25 UTC 2019

Excellent work, Fred, Laurence, Alan, Ben, Peter, Dave, Benjamin.
Below is a Monty Python inspired joke emblazoned on a button in 1986
according to a Usenet message.

From: schuler at gondor.UUCP (David W. Schuler)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: 1001 Button Sayings (and then some)
Date: Fri, 21-Mar-86 16:57:41 EST
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.jokes/er6Hs89mpVA/JQSTaZ3aT_gJ

[Begin excerpt]
Every spam is sacred
[End excerpt]

The line above echoes the lyric "Every sperm is sacred" in the 1983
movie "The Meaning of Life". It probably also references the Monty
Python spam skit. Sadly, there is no evidence that the line refers to
unsolicited email, screen scrolling, or buffer overflows.

Here is another spam joke that was posted in net.jokes in 1982 which
you might enjoy, but it is not about unsolicited email et cetera.

Newsgroups: net.jokes
From: steve at sri-unix
Date: Sat Nov 20 07:34:27 1982
Subject: genuine bathroom graffiti
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.jokes/A41U-vkpkSY/YyUUTSMLt_MJ

[Begin excerpt]
       I'M PINK, THEREFORE I'M SPAM.
                                   <---maybe you're a pinko
        I,m PUnk,thErEfoRE I,m SCUM.
[End excerpt]

Searching the Usenet archive for "spam" yields many "false positives".
There was a machine at SRI called spam. It was used as a UUCP relay.
So sri-spam appears in many Usenet messages in the 1980s. There was
also a person at MIT who used "spam" as a user name in the 1980s.

[Begin excerpt – message date 11/20/1982]
From: David A Boulton <SPAM at Mit-Ai>
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 12:52 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Here are the two posts in question from comp.sys.amiga in 1987 (the second
> is in response to the first):
>
> -----
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.amiga/eAugoelmZVs/OOtAZYMLOkUJ
> [Kevin McBride, 10/22/87]
> This article contains a *little* bit of Spam. :-)
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.amiga/eAugoelmZVs/88kmXASDBggJ
> [Dave Haynie, 10/23/87]
> Dirty Vikings!
> -----
>
> In the same newsgroup, "Spam Content" was used as a humorous header/warning
> on posts, e.g.:
>
> -----
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.amiga/CvrIz7aaoGk/tMaBKVvyup0J
> [Ethan R. Dicks, 11/30/87]
> Spam Content: very little
> [come and get me....]
> -----
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.amiga/Ed5yTkJn4Q0/xyKDLYyfxs0J
> [Dave Haynie, 9/1/88]
> Spam-Content: Negligible
> -----
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.amiga/tUFeH6uTxGA/_cibDISTKRcJ
> [Bryan Bayerdorffer, 11/3/88]
> In article <17... at ames.arc.nasa.gov> mike at ames.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Mike
> Smithwick) writes:
> =-In article <610 at cord.UUCP> nsw at cord.UUCP (Neil Weinstock) writes:
> =-<
> =-<**WARNING:  MAJOR SPAM CONTENT FOLLOWS.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**
> =-
> =-[spurious spam deleted]
> =-
> Listen, people, I'll have you know that Spam(R) is a registered service
> mark of SD&RS*, Austin, TX.  You agreed to pay us a royalty for every use
> of the word Spam(R) when you tore the shrink-wrap off the little can, but
> so far we haven't seen a penny.  So let's start forking it over shall we?
> -----
>
> --bgz
>
> On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 12:09 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I wasn’t able to find it either, but see also p. 77 of the MA thesis
> > “Trufax about Discussion Group Netspeak: An Historical Analysis of Semantic
> > Change in the English Slang of Newsgroups and Web Forums” (
> > https://tinyurl.com/yy92lh8b <https://tinyurl.com/yy92lh8b>) by Stephen
> > Turton. He discusses the citation in the section on spam.
> >
> > Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
> > Formerly of Seattle, WA
> >
> > > On 5 Oct 2019, at 05:26, Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
> > >
> > > This is the earliest example of "spam" clearly used in the sense of an
> > > unwanted commercial plug that I have found. From a post to the Usenet
> > group
> > > comp.sys.amiga on 23 October 1987:
> > >
> > > "This article contains a *little* bit of Spam. :-) Dirty Vikings!"
> > >
> > > The comment about Vikings ties it back to the Python sketch.
> > >
> > > (I no longer have the full citation to the Usenet post and thread, and
> > since
> > > Google bollixed up the Usenet archives, finding it anew is challenging.)
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of
> > > Shapiro, Fred
> > > Sent: Saturday, October 5, 2019 8:02 AM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Antedatings and Etymological Speculation Concerning
> > > "Spam" (Computing)
> > >
> > > Boy, I guess I don't have to do research any more, I just have to pose a
> > > question and people like Peter Reitan, Garson O'Toole, Ben Zimmer, Alan
> > > Knutson, and Larry Horn will post fantastic answers.  Thanks to all who
> > > responded.
> > >
> > > Fred Shapiro
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> > Peter
> > > Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM>
> > > Sent: Friday, October 4, 2019 10:36 PM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Subject: Re: Antedatings and Etymological Speculation Concerning "Spam"
> > > (Computing)
> > >
> > > Anyone who actually eats SPAM knows it is more-or-less solid, doesn't
> > > splatter.
> > > ________________________________
> > > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> > > Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > > Sent: Friday, October 4, 2019 7:05:16 PM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Subject: Re: Antedatings and Etymological Speculation Concerning "Spam"
> > > (Computing)
> > >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: Antedatings and Etymological Speculation Concerning
> > "Spam"
> > >              (Computing)
> > >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > ---
> > >
> > >> On Oct 4, 2019, at 9:32 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> =
> > > wrote:
> > >> =20
> > >> Here are some minor antedatings of the OED's first uses of "spam" =
> > > (computing) and "spammer":
> > >> =20
> > >> spam, v. (OED 1994 [25 July])  1994 _Manhattan_ (Kan.) _Mercury_ 8 May
> > >> =
> > > 52/4 (Newspapers.com)  The cost to spam an advertisement in thousands of
> > =
> > > news groups, where it is potentially read by hundreds of thousands of =
> > > computer users, is typically less than $50.
> > >> =20
> > >> spammer (OED 1994 [25 July])  1994 _San Francisco Examiner_ 25 May =
> > > 32/1 (Newspapers.com)  Some Netheads responded to the lawyers' ad =
> > barrage
> > > with guerilla tactics, "flaming" the spammers.
> > >> =20
> > >> The etymology of this use of the word "spam" is almost universally =
> > > said to derive from a Monty Python skit in which the food-name "Spam" is
> > =
> > > repeated incessantly.  Am I the only one who questions this derivation?
> > =
> > > To me the semantic link between mass promulgation of advertisements and =
> > > massive repetition of a word. although plausible, is somewhat weak.  The
> > =
> > > South Bend Tribune, 12 May 1994, said that "Among network veterans, such
> > =
> > > random posting is called 'spamming' -- a term derived from a brand of =
> > > pink, canned meat that splatters messily when hurled."  The OED's first =
> > > citation for the verb "spam," dated 25 July 1994, says the term was =
> > "meant
> > > to evoke the effect of dropping a can of Spam into a fan filling = the
> > > surrounding space with meat" (this brings to mind the idiom "the = shit
> > hits
> > > the fan").  In neither of these two articles is there any = mention of
> > Monty
> > > Python.  I suggest that "Spam splattering messily when = hurled" may be a
> > > more likely etymological explanation of the computing = meaning of "spam"
> > > than the Python skit.
> > >> =20
> > >> Fred Shapiro
> > >> =20
> > >
> > > Plausible enough. If that=E2=80=99s right, Monty Python would have been =
> > > played the role in the Spam Chronicles that Martin (=E2=80=9COld =
> > > Kinderhook=E2=80=9D) Van Buren and the =E2=80=9CO.K. club=E2=80=9D =
> > played
> > > in the trajectory of =E2=80=9CO.K.=E2=80=9D after the latter was =
> > initiated
> > > by the newspapers as detailed in A. W. Read=E2=80=99s = chronology. =20
> > >
> > > LH
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------------------------------
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