"FW" has meant many things over the years. For instance, during World War II, FW referred to any fighter aircraft designed and built by the Focke-Wulf company in Germany. To a Texan, FW might mean Fort Worth. And, to a South African, FW might refer to F.W. de Klerk, the Nobel Prize-winning former president.

In the Internet world, FW means that the e-mail was forwarded, meaning sent on to additional recipients known to the individual who received the original e-mail. Because of the wide proliferation of spam these days and the number of mindless, endless forwards, I submit that the acronym FW needs to be reassigned a different meaning to properly identify the sender.

FW should be an acronym incorporating a vulgar four-letter-word meaning "have intercourse" and the pejorative meaning of word for a less-than-intelligent person or "wit". So, whenever you receive an otherwise spam e-mail with an FW in the first part of the subject line, the sender is reminding you that only a FW would take the contents of the e-mail seriously and forward it on to other hapless recipients and that you should probably add that FW sender to your "blocked senders" list.