Spum is a neologism introduced by the Dutch writer S. Montag in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad. The word stands for the form of chewing gum, which is firmly attached to the ground after being spat from the mouth of the chewer. The word was first printed on 17 January 2004 and was based on 11 letters to the newspaper after a call in a previous column of Montag.
The word combines the negative-modern association of the word spam with the dirty sounding sp from spitting, the letter u often found in four-letter words, and the um of chewing gum.
On January 18, 2004, the word was found for the first time on the Internet, on as well the Dutch as the English wikipedia.
From: Votes for deletion
- Neologism. -- Decumanus 18:48, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. Too new. moink 18:53, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- So what? Keep. Everyking 18:57, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Second moink, delete. Fredrik 19:15, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Delete; too new to be encyclopæedic. Psychonaut 19:58, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Keep, but I am the writer, so if I shoudn't vote, remove my vote? To keep the text I will transfer it to my user page anyway. Ellywa 20:25, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Keep. Borderline as far as being encyclopedic, but being well-written and well documented tips the balance in favor of keeping it. Dpbsmith 22:26, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. Unless we plan to include every single neologism. Quibble splatwock raraxial. --Imran 02:32, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. Mikkalai 03:27, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Wiktionary and delete. Rossami 17:50, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. We can restore it if it ever becomes more widely used. Average Earthman 18:29, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Delete: WP is to document what exists, not stuff that might exist. If anyone remembers this neologism in 6 months, then it'll be time for an article. Wile E. Heresiarch 06:15, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)