Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun idiomatic Promised
benefits that never arrive.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871), where Alice is offered “jam to-morrow and jam yesterday — but never jam to-day”. This is a pun on a mnemonic for the usage of iam in Latin (note i/j conflation in Latin spelling), which means “now”, but only in the future or past tense, not in the present (which is instead nunc).
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Examples
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yarb commented on the word jam tomorrow
"The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day." - The White Queen in Through the Looking-Glass.
December 1, 2010