meme \MEEM\ noun : an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture
Example sentence: "Blogs are an interesting way... of seeing which ideas, memes, trends and news events are getting the most comment." (Clive Thompson, quoted in the _Sunday Tribune_, February 6, 2005)
Did you know? In 1976, British scientist Richard Dawkins wrote _The Selfish Gene_, and in his book he defended his new creation, the word "meme." Having first considered, then rejected, "mimeme," he wrote: "'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene.' I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate 'mimeme' to 'meme.'" The suitable Greek root was "mim-," meaning "mime" or "mimic." Dawkins's "mimeme" was formed from "mim-" plus "-eme," an English noun suffix that indicates a distinctive unit of language structure (as in "grapheme," "lexeme," and "phoneme"). "Meme" itself, like a good meme, caught on pretty quickly, spreading from person to person as it established itself in the language.
From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Aw, I wanted to post that!
*pouts*
Posted by Epictetus (Member # 6235) on :
Now, I wonder if they've ever done Defenstration...thats one of my favorite words.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
I love "tautological". Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
That reminds me, I wonder what ever happened to Defenestraitor...
Posted by Dragon (Member # 3670) on :
One of my best friends has a screen name that uses "defenstrate" in it.
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
When I started taking Italian I was so happy when I learned that the word for window was finestra. It made lots of sense.
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