meme

Etymology 1

Shortened from mimeme, equivalent to mime + -eme. Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Shortened (after gene) from mimeme (compare English phoneme), anglicized as if from a noun derived from Ancient Greek μῑμέομαι (mīméomai) with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitation, copy”). The concept was later applied to the Internet by Mike Godwin.

noun

1. (originally) Any unit of (originally cultural) information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another in a comparable way to the transmission of genes.
   Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
   Related memes tend to form mutually supporting meme-complexes such as religions, political ideologies, scientific theories, and New Age dogmas. 2002, Rita Carter, Exploring Consciousness, page 242
   The original Hobson and Jobson stock comic characters have died out as a meme, as has the application of their names to the Muharram in India. 2014, James Lambert, “A Much Tortured Expression: A New Look At ‘Hobson-Jobson’”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 27, number 1, page 67
2. (Internet) Media, usually humorous, which is copied and circulated online with slight adaptations, such as basic pictures, video templates, etc.
   I do...but my journal is a mess. It's mostly filled with memes and my bitching about a house I am building. 2005, darklily, “OT: Livejournal”, in soc.sexuality.general (Usenet)
   The idea was to append Keyboard Cat to the end of a blooper video to "play" that person offstage after a mistake or gaffe, like getting the hook in the days of vaudeville. The meme became popular, Ashton Kutcher tweeted about it to more than 1 million followers, and more than 4,000 such videos have now been made. 2012, Greg Jarboe, You Tube and Video Marketing, 2nd edition
   Harlem Shake meme: the new Gangnam Style? [headline] Feb 8, 2013, Tim Jonze, “Harlem Shake meme: the new Gangnam Style?”, in The Guardian
   Social networks produce inside jokes at a relentless pace. The best, worst, stupidest and funniest of those jokes become memes, and either you get them or you don’t. 2017-12-15, Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Life on the Meme Council: Meet the Internet’s Gatekeepers”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   He said that NFT sales had helped establish memes as a sophisticated art form and “serious pieces of culture.” 2021-04-29, Marie Fazio, quoting Ben Lashes, “The World Knows Her as ‘Disaster Girl.’ She Just Made $500,000 Off the Meme.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. (Internet) A specific instance of a meme, such as an image macro or a video, often with humorous superimposed text.
   This meme generator lets you make your own memes by adding a caption to existing images, or by uploading your own image.
   I'm always posting memes on the groupchat.
4. (Internet slang, derogatory) Something not to be taken seriously; a joke.
   It's a meme degree, you know. Good luck getting a job from that.
   Jogging is a meme.

verb

1. (intransitive, Internet slang) To create and use humorous memes.
   One axiom commonly seen on /pol/ is "The Left Can't Meme"; in other words, left-wing meme jokes aren't funny. 2018, Eric W. Saeger, Russian Nazi Troll Bots!
2. (transitive, Internet slang) To turn into a meme; to use a meme, especially to achieve a goal in real life.
   Scott Greer, a deputy editor of the Daily Caller, tweeted, “Cernovich memed #SickHillary into reality. Never doubt the power of memes.” 2016-10-31, Andrew Marantz, “Trolls for Trump”, in The New Yorker, retrieved 2017-12-02
   David Moyes succeeding Slaven Bilić as West Ham United manager is being memed into existence by the internet, Football Burp understands. 2017-11-06, “David Moyes to West Ham “memed into existence by the internet””, in Football Burp, retrieved 2017-12-02
   “Succession’s language is so specific, unique and captivating that nearly every line is worthy of being ‘memed’, even if it’s just somebody saying ‘fuck off’ or ‘bad tweet!’” she says. 2022-09-22, Jess Thomson, “‘Becoming a meme totally helps a show’: is TV being written with epic gifs in mind?”, in The Guardian
3. (intransitive, Internet slang, by extension) To joke around.
   actually, it wasn't my mental functioning. i'm just meming. May 17, 2004, you, “Truth vs. Lies”, in alt.slack (Usenet)
   “[P]ewdiepie is, once again, doing exactly what neo-nazis want,” Kotaku reporter Nathan Grayson commented on Twitter in response to the incident. “[W]hether he’s just meming or he ascribes to these values, it doesn’t matter. [W]hat matters is that he normalizes these ideas as jokes on THE platform where kids increasingly get their first exposure to the world at large.” Dec 13, 2018, Aja Romano, “YouTube’s most popular user amplified anti-Semitic rhetoric. Again.”, in Vox
   Some of his fellow fascists thought he was just “meming and pranking”; others dismissed it as “some autistic phase.” 2019, Rachel Monroe, Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession

Etymology 2

French mémé (“granny”)

noun

1. (informal, term of endearment) granny; nana
   When my parents got a divorce my dad washed his hands of my mom and me. He just pretended neither she nor I existed. If it weren't for my Meme, I would have lost all contact with the Atwood family after the divorce. 2011, David G. Atwood II, Into Hell I Rode, page 32
   Then there was my Meme, my father's mother. She was one of the most wonderful, loving, craziest, funniest people I ever had in my life. 2014, Sarah O'Malley, Touching the Edge of Heaven, page 3