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Original · left

Spam (food)

A commercial brand of canned, precooked pink meat made primarily of chopped pork shoulder and ham.

First in use: c. 1937
Duplicate · right

Spam (electronic)

Irrelevant, unwanted, and identical electronic messages blasted in bulk across email, direct messages, and comments.

First in use: c. 1993

Spam / Spam (food) / Spam (electronic)

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Duplicate share · 12 mo—
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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Hormel's canned meat via Monty Python.

Which meaning of Spam is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Spam (food) came first (c. 1937). Spam (electronic) arrived in 1993. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Spam (food)Spam (electronic)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · c. 1937

Spam (food)

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Duplicate · c. 1993

Spam (electronic)

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More duplicated terms

Internet & gaming culture