meme

See also: mémé, même, mëmë, and Meme

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene (1976). Shortened (after gene) from mimeme, from Ancient Greek μίμημα ‎(mímēma, “imitation, copy”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: mēm, IPA^(key): /miːm/
• Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

meme ‎(plural memes)

1. Any unit of 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.
   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene:

     Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.

   • 2002, Rita Carter, Exploring Consciousness, p. 242:

     Related memes tend to form mutually supporting meme-complexes such as religions, political ideologies, scientific theories, and New Age dogmas.

2. (Internet, slang) Something that is copied and circulated online with slight adaptations, including quizzes, basic pictures, video templates etc.
   • 2005, "darklily", OT: Livejournal (discussion on Internet newsgroup soc.sexuality.general)

     I do...but my journal is a mess. It's mostly filled with memes and my bitching about a house I am building.

   • 2012, Greg Jarboe, You Tube and Video Marketing, 2nd edition:

     The idea was to append Keyboard Cat to the end of a blooper video to "play" that person offstage after a mistake or gaffe, like getting the hook in the days of vaudeville. The meme became popular, Ashton Kutcher tweeted about it to more than 1 million followers, and more than 4,000 such videos have now been made.

   • 2013, The Guardian, (headline), 8 Feb 2013:

     Harlem Shake meme: the new Gangnam Style?

Derived terms

memedom memome memeplex

meme pool memetic memetic algorithm

memetic engineering memetics

See also

• culturgen
• email forward
• replicator

Translations

unit of cultural information

• Afrikaans: meem
• Arabic: مِيم m ‎(mīm)
• Belarusian: мем m ‎(mjem)
• Bulgarian: мем m ‎(mem)
• Catalan: mem (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 模因 ‎(móyīn), 米姆 ‎(mǐmǔ), 迷因 ‎(míyīn), 彌 (zh), 弥 (zh) ‎(mí), 惡搞 (zh) ‎(ègǎo)

• Czech: mem (cs) m
• Dutch: meme
• Esperanto: memeo
• Estonian: meem
• Finnish: meemi (fi)
• French: mème (fr) m
• Galician: meme (gl)
• German: Mem (de) n
• Greek: μιμίδιο (el) n ‎(mimídio)

• Hebrew: מֵם m ‎(mem)
• Hungarian: mém (hu)
• Italian: meme (it) m
• Japanese: ミーム ‎(mīmu)
• Korean: 밈 ‎(mim)
• Norwegian: mem
• Polish: mem (pl) m
• Portuguese: meme (pt) m
• Romanian: memă f
• Russian: мем (ru) m ‎(mem)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мем m

  Roman: mem (sh) m

• Spanish: meme (es) m
• Swedish: mem (sv) c
• Ukrainian: мем m ‎(mem)

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Italian

Noun

meme m ‎(plural memi)

1. meme

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Portuguese

Noun

meme m (plural memes)

1. meme (unit of cultural information)

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Spanish

Noun

meme m ‎(plural memes)

1. meme (unit of cultural information)

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Tok Pisin

Etymology

Reduplication of English meh (onomatopoeia for the sound a goat makes)

Noun

meme

1. goat

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Turkish

Noun

meme ‎(definite accusative memeyi, plural memeler)

1. (anatomy) breast

Declension

declension of meme

	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	meme	memeler
definite accusative (belirtme)	memeyi	memeleri
dative (yönelme)	memeye	memelere
locative (bulunma)	memede	memelerde
ablative (çıkma)	memeden	memelerden
genitive (tamlayan)	memenin	memelerin

possessive forms of meme

benim (my)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	memem	memelerim
definite accusative (belirtme)	mememi	memelerimi
dative (yönelme)	mememe	memelerime
locative (bulunma)	mememde	memelerimde
ablative (çıkma)	mememden	memelerimden
genitive (tamlayan)	mememin	memelerimin
senin (your)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	memen	memelerin
definite accusative (belirtme)	memeni	memelerini
dative (yönelme)	memene	memelerine
locative (bulunma)	memende	memelerinde
ablative (çıkma)	memenden	memelerinden
genitive (tamlayan)	memenin	memelerinin
onun (her/his/its)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	memesi	memeleri
definite accusative (belirtme)	memesini	memelerini
dative (yönelme)	memesine	memelerine
locative (bulunma)	memesinde	memelerinde
ablative (çıkma)	memesinden	memelerinden
genitive (tamlayan)	memesinin	memelerinin
bizim (our)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	mememiz	memelerimiz
definite accusative (belirtme)	mememizi	memelerimizi
dative (yönelme)	mememize	memelerimize
locative (bulunma)	mememizde	memelerimizde
ablative (çıkma)	mememizden	memelerimizden
genitive (tamlayan)	mememizin	memelerimizin
sizin (your)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	memeniz	memeleriniz
definite accusative (belirtme)	memenizi	memelerinizi
dative (yönelme)	memenize	memelerinize
locative (bulunma)	memenizde	memelerinizde
ablative (çıkma)	memenizden	memelerinizden
genitive (tamlayan)	memenizin	memelerinizin
onların (their)	singular (tekil)	plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın)	memeleri	memeleri
definite accusative (belirtme)	memelerini	memelerini
dative (yönelme)	memelerine	memelerine
locative (bulunma)	memelerinde	memelerinde
ablative (çıkma)	memelerinden	memelerinden
genitive (tamlayan)	memelerinin	memelerinin