meme

In 1976, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene, arguing that natural selection operates on genes rather than organisms. In the final chapter, he proposed that culture might work similarly: ideas, behaviors, and styles spread by copying themselves from mind to mind. He needed a word for a unit of cultural transmission analogous to the gene.

Dawkins coined meme from the Greek mimema (something imitated), deliberately shortening it to rhyme with gene. A meme was anything that replicated through imitation: tunes, catchphrases, fashion, religious beliefs. Good memes spread; bad memes died out. Culture evolved through memetic selection.

For two decades, meme remained an academic term, debated by philosophers and cognitive scientists. Then came the internet. Suddenly, cultural units could replicate with unprecedented speed and fidelity. By the 2000s, 'internet meme' described viral images, videos, and jokes—and eventually just meme alone meant shareable internet content.

Dawkins watched his coinage transform. The academic concept of memetics faded while meme flourished in exactly the way he had theorized—replicating, mutating, competing for attention. The word that named cultural evolution became one of the most successful examples of it.