culturgen

English edit

Etymology edit

Introduced by Charles Lumsden and Edward O. Wilson in their book Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process (1981); from culture +‎ -gen.

Noun edit

culturgen (plural culturgens)

One of the propagating mutating cultural units that form the subject of memetics.
Synonym: meme

Usage notes edit

The term has fallen in popularity, and now the slightly older term meme (coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene) is almost universally used instead.