jam [E18th] The British have been eating a preserve called jam since the 18th century. The best jam is packed with fruit, and its name probably comes from the verb jam meaning ‘cram’ or ‘squeeze’, although the origin of this word is uncertain and it dates from the same period. The saying jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today comes from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass (1872), where the White Queen explains to Alice that, ‘The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today.’ In Britain if you are jammy you are lucky, but in Australia you are rather posh or affected. In Victorian slang the word first simply meant ‘excellent’. Traffic jams are an everyday reality, but the first jams were on rivers, not roads. From the beginning of the 19th century loggers talked of jams of logs being floated downriver—the original logjam. By the 1850s references to ‘carriage jams’ can be found. See also money.