Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Blossom]

I found this in an article recently:

The most obvious example of this is the "Smoking is Cool" meme, which does very well for itself while killing off its hosts at a great rate.

What is a meme, and how do you pronounce it?

[pugachevV]

It doesn't make sense. Meme is a French word. It means "same"
If you changed it to themeit would make sense.

[advoca]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a meme (pronounced meem) as �A self-replicating element of culture, passed on by imitation.� Websters Dictionary defines meme as "an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture."

Typical memes include ways of making pots or building arches, slogans, ideas, catch-phrases, melodies, icons, inventions, smoking, and fashions such as mini-skirts and bikinis.

The name first appeared in a book by Richard Dawkins in 1976 called The Selfish Gene. He defined the meme as "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation."

Dawkins is British and is the Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

His idea has given rise to speciallists who call themselves memeticists but there is much argument about their definitions of meme. The lack of a consistent, rigorous and precise definition of a meme remains one of the principal criticisms leveled at memetics, the study of memes.