麻豆社

Why do we call unwanted emails 鈥渟pam鈥�? The origins of the term are a lot funnier than you think.

Word expert Graeme Donald told 5 live Breakfast that the use of the word to describe emails comes from Monty Python鈥檚 famous 鈥淪pam鈥� sketch:

鈥淏ack in the early days of the computer and the internet the 鈥榓noraks鈥� who populated the computer world were avid Python fans.

鈥淚t was the script of that spam skit 鈥� the relentless spam, spam spam, spam, spam, and the way that unwanted mail just regurgitates out of the PC鈥� the email connection was forged by the Monty Python sketch.鈥�

This clip is originally from 5 live Breakfast on Wednesday 5 July 2017.