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jam tomorrow

noun

Etymology

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 jam, 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).

  1. derived from spelling)

Definitions

  1. Promised benefits that never arrive.

    • Yet they've proved that common men can show astonishing fortitude in chasing jam tomorrow.
    • It always seems to be a problem to be dealt with when resources (later) permit. Jam tomorrow, as usual.

  2. The availability of a resource at a future date.

    • The consumption-possibilities curve illustrates the choice which must be made: more jam today means less jam tomorrow; less jam today means more jam tomorrow.

The neighborhood

Derived

jam today

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for jam tomorrow. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA