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Actually, 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
by _0ffh 8y ago
Actually, 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