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Can Anyone Remember What Words Originally Created the "SPAM" Acronym?

Posted on 11/13/2002 6:35:41 PM PST by SierraWasp

This is a test of the institutional memory of FReeperdom.

My query is first about the tasty canned meat, but also to learn if the current common slang regarding undesirable e-mail is in anyway related, or if that term has it's own independent basis in origination.


TOPICS: Free Republic; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: acronym; freepun; ilikecheese; spam
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To: mississippi red-neck
ROFL!
101 posted on 11/15/2002 4:17:07 AM PST by snopercod
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Comment #102 Removed by Moderator

Comment #103 Removed by Moderator

To: moron
According to the Oxford English Dictionary Spam is...

1. The proprietary name of a type of tinned meat consisting chiefly of pork; also (with lower-case initial) applied loosely to other types of tinned luncheon meat.

1937 Squeal 1 July 1/2 In the last month Geo. A. Hormel & Co...launched the product Spam... The ‘think-up’ of the name [is] credited to Kenneth Daigneau, New York actor... Seems as if he had considered the word a good memorable trade-name for some time, had only waited for a product to attach it to. 1937 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 26 Oct. 750/2 Geo. A. Hormel & Company, Austin, Minn... Spam..For Canned MeatsNamely, Spiced Ham. Claims use since May 11, 1937. 1939 J. STEINBECK Grapes of Wrath v. 49 The tractor driver stopped..and opened his lunch: sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper, white bread, pickle, cheese, Spam. 1942 Yank 28 Oct. 8 There, arrayed in all their glory, were slices of ham, spam, bologna and potato salad. 1951 ‘A. GARVE’ Murder in Moscow xiii. 127, I received..four tins of meatspam, I think it was called. 1957 H. ROOSENBURG Walls came tumbling Down ix. 199 We were offered Spam sandwiches. 1971 C. BONINGTON Annapurna South Face xi. 134 That night he made supper, a magnificent concoction of fried Spam and fried new potatoes. 1981 G. MACBETH Kind of Treason iv. 41 A plate of Molly's best Spam sandwiches.

fig. 1958 Listener 6 Nov. 750/2 An actor can only turn the quite unconscious richness of it [sc. the Hoxton voice] intospam.

2. Comb. Spam can slang, a streamlined steam locomotive formerly used on the Southern Region of British Rail; Spam medal Mil. slang, a medal awarded to all the members of a force (see also quot. 1962).

1967 G. F. FIENNES I tried to run Railway v. 54 We borrowed from the Southern for trials two Battle of Britain class engines..We took these Spam Cans out. 1971 D. J. SMITH Discovery Railwayana x. 59 Spam can, streamlined locomotive of the SR.

1945 PARTRIDGE Dict. R.A.F. Slang 40 Naffy gong 1939-45 star (medal). Since late 1943... It is also called the spam medal. 1959 Legionary Mar. 11/1 As all of us overseas at the time were volunteers, it meant that everybody wore one and so, in patronizing fashion, we tagged it [sc. the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal] the Spam Medal. 1962 GRANVILLE Dict. Sailors' Slang 110 Spam medal, 1939-45 star whose ribbon has the same colours as the NAAFI girls' arm flash. As spam, a kind of spiced-ham, was sold in the NAAFI canteen, what more obvious term could suggest itself?

Hence spammy a., consisting or tasting chiefly of (bland) luncheon meat; also fig., commonplace, mediocre, unexciting.

1959 Observer 11 Jan. 18/3 Skipton is toned down to scale with our spammy age. 1960 J. STROUD Shorn Lamb i. 13 We got a spammy sort of meal.

104 posted on 11/15/2002 10:58:04 AM PST by davidwendell
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To: GeekDejure
"Smart People Adore Masturbation !!! ;-))"

Hay Geek, wouldn't in be more PC to say:

Smart People Allow Mastication?

What? Did'ja join some leftist population control commune?(grin)

We're talkin about chewing stuff like SPAM here, not something that rhymes with chewing!!!

You've obviously got to too much time, or something, on your hands!!!(wipe that grin off yer face, fella)

105 posted on 11/15/2002 3:07:52 PM PST by SierraWasp
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To: Arkinsaw
lumberjack = Jack used to lift lumber.

darkroom = Room in which dark is stored. When door is opened, the dark leaks out.

babyoil = Oil derived from babies.

logjam = A tasty spread made from trees.

polevault = A safe place for keeping poles.

fieldday = Annual holiday celebrating prarie grass.

datafile = Coarse tool used to shape data.

horsefly = Aerial migration of horses.

fruitpunch = The act of striking a fruit.

Just leave Spam alone. You don't want to know where it comes from. ...I think it's meat.

106 posted on 11/15/2002 7:43:57 PM PST by freepy smurf
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To: TigersEye
But I think SPAM means Sling Pork At Muslims.

LOLOLOL

107 posted on 11/15/2002 7:47:08 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: SierraWasp
Shit Posing As Meat
108 posted on 11/15/2002 8:13:11 PM PST by NC Conservative
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To: dano1
-1937 : SPAM is created at Hormel's home in Austin, MN. It was originally called HORMEL Spiced Ham, until an enterprising young person dreamed up the name SPAM by combining the "SP" from Spiced with the "AM" from Ham. They won $100 for their idea. (source: http://www.holmen.k12.wi.us/drkulas/wsWinter2001/web2q/history.html) 22 posted on 11/13/2002 6:56 PM PST by dano1 [

And what Al Gore did with the $100 he won for inventing the name SPAM, nobody knows!!

109 posted on 11/15/2002 10:29:05 PM PST by timestax
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To: muggs
bump
110 posted on 11/15/2002 10:44:41 PM PST by timestax
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To: SierraWasp; ArcLight
Many freepers have cited the monty python skit. I am speculating that the name stuck because of "spanning email" could also describe spam. So the skit, the canned food and the sound of the word seemed to fit the description of the junk email.
111 posted on 11/16/2002 10:19:53 AM PST by staytrue
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To: staytrue
bump
112 posted on 11/16/2002 4:57:53 PM PST by timestax
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To: NC Conservative
Yer sposed ta say shift... as in Shift Happens!!!
Don'cha wanna be pulitickly purfect?
113 posted on 11/16/2002 8:07:00 PM PST by SierraWasp
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To: SierraWasp
Lexicon of FreeRepublic - 4th Edition
114 posted on 11/16/2002 10:29:23 PM PST by BraveMan
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To: mississippi red-neck
That's what you get when you run over one of your're wife's nesting hens with a bush-hog.

Sometimes the truth is absoultely hilarious.

Been there, done that.

Didn't find it particularly funny at the time, but in retrospect....

115 posted on 11/17/2002 8:43:08 AM PST by OldSmaj
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To: MarkL
Which Monty Python was that on? I want to rent it.
116 posted on 11/17/2002 8:46:41 AM PST by maui_hawaii
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To: TheLurkerX
At least your mother rolled it in cornmeal and fried it. I had to eat it with my lump of dried poison that my 149 brothers and sisters and I had for breakfast in our shoebox in the middle of the road, right before we had to lick the road clean and go to work for 29 hours a day down mill.
117 posted on 11/17/2002 9:32:55 AM PST by mommybain
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To: mommybain
Oh, forgot....and when we got home our dad would slice us into with the spam knife.
118 posted on 11/17/2002 9:35:02 AM PST by mommybain
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To: TC Rider
She has always loved Spam and is not even Hawaiian. Her fav is to slice it thick and fry it in a pan.

So do I, could she be a cousin perhaps. Although, I may not like it as thick as she does, but I do like it crispy on the edges.

119 posted on 11/17/2002 12:28:54 PM PST by reg45
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To: timestax
And what Al Gore did with the $100 he won for inventing the name SPAM, nobody knows!!

It was contributed to the McGovern campaign in '72. It takes a loser to know a loser.

120 posted on 11/17/2002 1:19:31 PM PST by reg45
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