meme
[meem]
- a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition and replication in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.
- a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the Internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.
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- to create and spread memes: He spends a lot of time memeing and sharing his videos with friends.
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- to make the subject of a meme: cute cats that get memed.
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Origin of meme
First recorded in 1976, meme is from the Greek word mīmeîsthai ‘to imitate, copy’; coined by R. Dawkins, British biologist
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for memes
Contemporary Examples
Christie has problems, and they begin with the fact that photos and videos and memes can haunt us.
Memes that ridiculed political leaders and the Hong Kong Police Force shot through fiber optic cables at light speed.
Instead, the memes tackled the sexual assault allegations head-on.
Heroic in World Cup defeat, he was instantly immortalized in memes.
When Richard Dawkins coined the term “memes,” he described a new agent of evolution: Ideas.
Historical Examples
Its implicit assumption is that memes, the spiritual equivalent of genes, are subject to mechanisms of evolution.
The Civilization of IlliteracyMihai Nadin
The pencil and brush are replaced by the scanner and by memes of operations favoring minute detail over meaningful wholes.
The Civilization of IlliteracyMihai Nadin
meme
- an idea or element of social behaviour passed on through generations in a culture, esp by imitation
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Word Origin
C20: possibly from mimic, on the model of gene
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for memes
meme
n.
1976, introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene," coined by him from Greek sources, e.g. mimeisthai "to imitate" (see mime), and intended to echo gene.
We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'. [Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene," 1976]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper