3 ms·
> 'memes' in the traditional sense (pretty much a general term for things that spread virally.) The original meaning: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme ht
by acqq 8y ago
> 'memes' in the traditional sense (pretty much a general term for things that spread virally.)
The original meaning:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
The word meme was “coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976)[11][16] as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catchphrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches.[17]”
- _0ffh 8y agoActually, the word "meme" was used in a small fraction of academia before Dawkins popularised it, in a meaning similar, but not quite the same, as Dawkins' meme. I'm positive I've read a paper from some Dutch university about that. [Citation needed]
- _0ffh 8y agoI couldn't help but dig a bit, and I managed turn up a couple of papers [1] [2] that suggests that the pre-Dawkins meme was variously called "mneme" (which spelling is closer to the Greek root of the word), and completely different things. The Dutch connection seems to be the Leiden school of linguistics [3]. [1] https://semioticon.com/virtuals/imitation/van_driem_paper.pdf https://semioticon.com/virtuals/imitation/van_driem_paper.pd... [2] https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/42774/bkj_ThesisFull.pdf?sequence=1 https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/42774/b... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leiden_school https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leiden_school Edit: Formatting and typo