Meme | Definition, Meaning, History, & Facts (2024)

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Meme | Definition, Meaning, History, & Facts? ›

meme, unit of cultural information spread by imitation. The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene.

meme \MEEM\ noun. 1 : an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. 2 : an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media.

A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme.

Origin of the Word “Meme”

Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist, first used the term meme in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. The word meme was influenced by the word gene and is the shortened version of mimeme. It was derived from the ancient Greek word “mīmēma,” which means “imitated.”

The dancing baby came out in 1996 and is considered by many to be the first digital meme. It took hours to download and was a bit creepy. The dancing baby made the jump to other forms of media by its famous appearance on the hit television series Ally MacBeal.

The word “meme” comes from the Greek mimema, meaning something that has been “imitated.” According to Britannica, the word was first introduced by Richard Dawkins, a British biologist, in his book The Selfish Gene; his intention was for “meme” to sound similar to "gene.” In his book, Dawkins makes a direct connection ...

meme (noun as in cultural item repeatedly transmitted) Strong matches. buzzword trend. Weak matches. concept craze fad fashion idea kick meteor vogue.

While social media is a platform for communication, memes are a way of expressing a culturally-relevant idea. A meme is an image or video that represents the thoughts and feelings of a specific audience. Most memes are captioned photos intended to elicit humor.

In French, the word “même” translates to “same” and the Greek word “mimoúmai” means “to imitate.” In his book, Dawkins said, “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.” He wanted to use a monosyllable that sounded like “gene.” Dawkins ...

Characteristics of memes include their susceptibility to parody, their use of intertextuality, their propagation in a viral pattern, and their evolution over time.

What is an example of a meme? ›

What's an example of a meme? The most popular memes often feature a recognizable image or video clip that is paired with a witty caption or phrase. For example, the "Distracted Boyfriend" meme features an image of a man looking at another woman while his girlfriend looks on in disapproval.

meme, unit of cultural information spread by imitation. The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene.

Gifs and memes are very similar. The only difference is that gifs are animated and move, while memes are usually static. Recently though, videos, gifs and images have all been used to make memes.

One of the most popular memes of all time, “success kid” uses a 2007 photo taken of a little boy with a clenched fist and determined expression. It is almost always used to display small successful moments or “wins” that happen to someone throughout a normal day like getting an extra chicken nugget in a fast-food meal.

Ownership of the copyright in a meme is usually shared between the owner of the picture, and then the person that created the meme using that picture. In that sense, it is pretty easy to work out ownership of the meme.

Yes, it was that simple: an image, GIF or video of a computer-animated dancing baby. The original Dancing Baby was actually a sample file for a software company called AutoDesk, who used such files to show customers the capabilities of its animation plug-in.

meme, unit of cultural information spread by imitation. The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene.

An image, video, piece of text, or something similar, that parodies or provokes humour, that is usually spread virally on the internet by internet users who sometimes adapt or vary the meme when passing it on.

An Internet meme, or simply meme (/miːm/, MEEM), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behaviour, or style) that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.

Coined by the British evolutionist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene (1976), a meme is a unit of culture—such as “tunes, ideas, catch‐phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or building arches.” In humans, memes have supposedly taken over much of the evolutionary burden of the traditional units of ...