meme
/miːm/ · noun
Meaning
- Any unit of (originally cultural) information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another in a comparable way to the transmission of genes.
- Media, usually humorous, which is copied and circulated online with slight adaptations, such as basic pictures, video templates, etc.
- A specific instance of a meme, such as an image macro or a video, often with humorous superimposed text.
- Something which is deceptive; a trick, a ruse.
- Something not to be taken seriously; a joke.
- A work produced and shared in response to a prompt or suggestion within an online group.
- To create and use humorous memes.
- To turn into a meme; to use a meme, especially to achieve a goal in real life.
- To joke around.
- granny; nana
Etymology / origin
Etymology tree English mimemeclip. English meme Clipping of mimeme, equivalent to mime + -eme. Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Shortened (after gene) from mimeme (compare English phoneme), anglicized as if from a noun derived from Ancient Greek μῑμέομαι (mīméomai) with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitation, copy”). The concept was later applied to the Internet by Mike Godwin.
- μῑμέομαι(grc)→
- phoneme(English)→
- meme (English)
- Relations: cog, der
Related words
phoneme(English)μῑμέομαι(grc)mem(Azerbaijani)мем(Bulgarian)мийм(Bulgarian)mem(Catalan)meme(Cebuano)memeo(Esperanto)meem(Estonian)meemi(Finnish)mème(French)Meme(German)מם(Hebrew)मीम(Hindi)meme(Indonesian)meme(Italian)ミーム(Japanese)밈(Korean)밈화(Korean)мем(Macedonian)јасјас(Macedonian)meme(Portuguese)memă(Romanian)мем(Russian)мим(Serbo-Croatian)meme(Spanish)mem(Swedish)meme(Vietnamese)מים(Yiddish)
Descendant words
- mem(Azerbaijani) (der)
- мем(Bulgarian) (bor)
- мийм(Bulgarian) (bor)
- mem(Catalan) (bor)
- meme(Cebuano) (bor)
- memeo(Esperanto) (bor)
- meem(Estonian) (bor)
- meemi(Finnish) (bor)
- mème(French) (bor)
- Meme(German) (bor)
- מם(Hebrew) (bor)
- मीम(Hindi) (bor)
- meme(Indonesian) (bor)
- meme(Italian) (bor)
- ミーム(Japanese) (bor)
- 밈(Korean) (bor)
- 밈화(Korean) (der)
- мем(Macedonian) (bor)
- јасјас(Macedonian) (bor)
- meme(Portuguese) (bor)
- memă(Romanian) (bor)
- мем(Russian) (bor)
- мим(Serbo-Croatian) (bor)
- meme(Spanish) (bor)
- mem(Swedish) (der)
- meme(Vietnamese) (bor)
- מים(Yiddish) (bor)
Sources
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