GC: n

CT: The term spam refers to unsolicated commercial advertisments distributed online. Most spam comes to people via email, but spam can also be found in online chat rooms and message boards.
Spam consumes a tremendous amount of network bandwidth on the Internet. More importantly, it can consume too much of peoples’ personal time if not managed properly.
The most effective strategy for eliminating spam is to ignore it. Spam’s continued existence depends on maintaining an audience of people who respond to the messages. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and corporations have invested in spam-filtering products and services, but this technology is not very mature yet.
Some people also label as spam any form of Internet advertising such as pop up browser windows. In contrast to true spam, though, these forms of advertising are provided to people in the act of visiting Web sites and are merely a “cost of doing business” to help support those sites’ products and services.

S: http://compnetworking.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-spam.htm (last access: 18 February 2015)

N: 1. proprietary name registered by Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in U.S., 1937; probably a conflation of spiced ham. Soon extended to other kinds of canned meat.
In the sense of “Internet junk mail” it was coined by Usenet users after March 31, 1993, when Usenet administrator Richard Depew inadvertently posted the same message 200 times to a discussion group. The term had been used in online text games, and ultimately it is from a 1970 sketch on the British TV show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” wherein a reading of a restaurant’s menu devolves into endless repetitions of “spam.”
2. An unsolicited or unwanted electronic communication transmitted to a large number of recipients by means of electronic media such as e-mail, forums, blogs, instant messaging and wikis.
3. Spam is usually commercial (advertisements), noncommercial (political, social or religious commentaries) or malicious (advance fee fraud and phishing) in nature.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=spam&searchmode=none (last access: 18 February 2015). 2 & 3. TERMIUMPLUS.

SYN: spam message

S: TERMIUMPLUS

CR: computer science