The word "meme" has a scientific origin Bashny.Net

word "meme" is widely used in Internet and meaning virally spreading jokes, ideas, cartoons, pictures, etc. is, oddly enough, the scientific origins.

The term "meme" was coined by evolutionary biologist with a very controversial reputation and Richard Dawkins was first used in his book "The Selfish Gene" (1976). It Dawkins writes of "meme" as follows:

«We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that means a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. The word "Mimeme" comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want to make it sound as briefly and simply as a "gene". I hope fellow linguists will forgive me if I abbreviate "Mimeme" as a "meme". To justify this term also gives the values of the French même ».

blockquote> The word même translated from French as "the same" or "wrong", depending on the context. Greek mimeme comes from the Greek μίμημα, which means "imitation", "imitation", "copy».

Dawkins hoped that his term will be used as a measure of human cultural transmission, for example, music, fashion or phrases, and tied it with his idea of evolution as the spread of memes occurs over time. This evolution is, for Dawkins, first of all, that people do not just copy the memes from each other, but also give them new sounds and meanings, thus developing their cultural environment.

But the "meme" has begun to live his life and has acquired a variety of content and derived forms:

Memetics: people who are investigating the transfer and development of cultural ideas on a scientific basis, but with a non-scientific point of view.

Meme-complexes or memeplexes: memes have evolved in symbiosis with other memes, such as, Herp / Derp and other elements «rage comics», in RuNet known as "Trololo comics." In "real life" memeplexes - a combined interactive ideas, such as religious institutions.

Memotipy: information and meaningful memes.

Memeoidy: people are so carried away meme that are willing to offer himself as a sacrifice to him. For example, a suicide bomber is memeoidom that distributes memeplex Islam. We can say that, except in extreme cases, we are all in varying degrees memeoidami.

Meme Marketing: the use of memes to viral spread of the advertising message in the market of goods and services, often using the Internet memes.

Well, we all know intrenet memes.

via factroom.ru