THE DERIVATION OF “SPAM”.
THE DERIVATION OF “SPAM”. I was born in 1942 and most of the meat I ate before I was six or so was Spam. I liked it, but later became aware that there were those who felt that they had eaten too much Spam. The internet word “spam” is derived from “Spam”, the food. The derivation is attributed in this wikipedia article6+ to the Monty Python Spam sketch, which is set in a restaurant where almost every item on the menu contains Spam. The Pythons were children during and after World War II (Terry Jones, born 1942; John Cleese, born 1939), and the Spam sketch reflects the memories of Spam in my generation. The wikipedia article says: “Spam was a popular food during World War II in the UK. Although rationed, it was generally easily available and not subject to supply shortages, as with other meats. Thanks to its wartime ubiquity, the British grew heartily tired of it, hence the sketch.”