Originally Posted by Dictionary.com
meme
–noun
a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.
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Origin:
1976; < Gk mīmeîsthai to imitate, copy; coined by R. Dawkins, Brit. biologist
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2011.
— n
an idea or element of social behaviour passed on through generations in a culture, esp by imitation
[C20: possibly from mimic , on the model of gene ]
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Word Origin & History
meme
1976, introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene" (1976), coined by him from Gk. sources, e.g. mimeisthai "to imitate," and intended to echo gene .
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Computing Dictionary
meme definition
philosophy
/meem/ [By analogy with "gene"] Richard Dawkins's term for an idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitise people into propagating them much as viruses do.
Memes can be considered the unit of cultural evolution. Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution. Some ideas survive better than others; ideas can mutate through, for example, misunderstandings; and two ideas can recombine to produce a new idea involving elements of each parent idea.
The term is used especially in the phrase "meme complex" denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organised belief system, such as a religion. However, "meme" is often misused to mean "meme complex".
Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has become more important than biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.
See also memetic algorithm.
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