Paul Segsworth

In doing the work on my email campaign project, I came across the origin of the word spam as meaning "unwanted emails".

The word apparently originates from a Monty Python sketch back in 1970. The sketch is set in a cafe where nearly every item on the menu is SPAM-based. As the waiter recites theSPAM-filled menu, a background chorus of Vikings drowns out all conversation with a song repeating “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, . . . lovely SPAM”, hence “spamming” the dialog.

In the very early days of internet, some users, apparently fans of Monty Python, sent messages comprised solely of the word SPAM, repeated multiple times. Some of these messages even contained the dialog from Monty Python sketch. These messages, in the days of slow server speeds and slower hard drive speeds, were labeled "spam mail". The term eventually broadened to include any unwanted or abusive email. More at Wikipedia.