Talk:meme

General

This encyclopedia article needs to be changed into a dictionary article. — Hippietrail 15:39, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Still? I think it looks good now. — henne 10:25, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it no longer needs fixing --140.211.91.237 01:00, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I would like to anti-verify online quizzes as individual memes. I have never seen the usage, and it does not match well with the established definition. Also, I don't think "memetic" is derived from meme; I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. --140.211.91.237 01:00, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

In the sense of "(loosely) An interactive quiz or survey spread from one user to another on the Internet" DAVilla 18:23, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

See (for example) these results from a search of LiveJournal, where practically every occurrence of "this meme" refers to something of the above kind. [1] 86.131.94.6 18:58, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that's interesting! Too bad we can't use LiveJournal though. I sometimes quote blogs if they seem pretty solid, but anymore I even then prefer not to except as an addition, since they seldom count as durable, and even then questionably so. LiveJournal is so transient that half the time the pages are gone before I can even quote them. But nevermind, I'll see what I can dig up. DAVilla 22:11, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Umm, finally cited, two-and-a-half years later. Equinox ◑ 23:33, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

I think mark it as a neologism and leave it. It seems a natural extension of the word. Rfvpassed Harmless. Andrew massyn 20:35, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Seems I spoke too soon. See discussion above. Leaving the rfvtag for the nonce. Andrew massyn 20:35, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

From RFV

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process.

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

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meme

Discussion moved from December Rfv. Please discuss further. Andrew massyn 20:38, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

This encyclopedia article needs to be changed into a dictionary article. — Hippietrail 15:39, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Still? I think it looks good now. — henne 10:25, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it no longer needs fixing --140.211.91.237 01:00, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I would like to anti-verify online quizzes as individual memes. I have never seen the usage, and it does not match well with the established definition. Also, I don't think "memetic" is derived from meme; I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. --140.211.91.237 01:00, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

In the sense of "(loosely) An interactive quiz or survey spread from one user to another on the Internet" DAVilla 18:23, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

See (for example) these results from a search of LiveJournal, where practically every occurrence of "this meme" refers to something of the above kind. [2] 86.131.94.6 18:58, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that's interesting! Too bad we can't use LiveJournal though. I sometimes quote blogs if they seem pretty solid, but anymore I even then prefer not to except as an addition, since they seldom count as durable, and even then questionably so. LiveJournal is so transient that half the time the pages are gone before I can even quote them. But nevermind, I'll see what I can dig up. DAVilla 22:11, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I think mark it as a neologism and leave it. It seems a natural extension of the word. Rfvpassed Harmless. Andrew massyn 20:35, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Seems I spoke too soon. See discussion above. Leaving the rfvtag for the nonce. Andrew massyn 20:35, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

rfvfailed 2.5 years without any citations Cynewulf 21:33, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Meaning that failed the verification

Just add an explicit note, the meaning that failed the verification was the following:

1. An interactive quiz or survey spread from one user to another on the Internet.

--Daniel Polansky 16:37, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Use on Twitter

A slang usage I just encountered on Twitter suggests that "meme" is being used to refer to tweets, or the process of sharing information concisely in short messages. How widespread is this?

Definition 3

"(Internet, slang, loosely) A quiz or survey that is copied from one webpage or online journal to another, each participant filling in his or her personal answers."

I have never ever ever in my ever ever life seen the word "meme" used with this meaning. Perhaps it's a very new meaning or is only used in an incredibly limited sphere, but the only usage I've seen on the internet for the word has been with reference to internet memes and, thus, an extension of definition 1. Further, on looking at the sources it seems that the only place the word is actually used with definition 3 this is on LJ. 124.169.220.73 14:05, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

We have three citations, enough to meet WT:CFI, and none of them comes from LJ. They are from unrelated Internet newsgroups. Equinox ◑ 18:44, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Even though I know an anonymous comment on a discussion page is about as valuable as a Deutsche Mark, I feel compelled to add that this usage has seen gradually growing popularity on social networking sites (in particular, Facebook), and has been spreading beyond journalblogging circles for quite some time. It's probably not quite as widespread in use as "survey" or "quiz", but it's often used synonymously with that concept. — This unsigned comment was added by 76.164.248.148 (talk) at 00:16, 8 June 2010.

I have never heard of a meme being a quiz until today when I read it at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meme. I have spoken English all my life, live in the United States, and use the Internet all the time for fun and otherwise. --75.71.229.53 05:02, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

I have heard of this usage (as an American), but I only see it used for specific "challenge your friends to respond" kinds of quizzes -- Mocha2007 (talk) 12:50, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Tea Room discussion

See Special:PermanentLink/24549090#meme. DCDuring TALK 21:24, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Tea room.

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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"Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity." What does this mean? That, for instance, the word "Caucasian" might be a meme? Equinox ◑ 15:26, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

I've wondered whether this kind of thing would be better defined by a {{non-gloss definition}}. DCDuring TALK 01:58, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

I'll just chip in and say I don't understand it either. Mglovesfun (talk) 12:03, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

I think the sentence should be deleted. It is encyclopedic. The definition given seems adequate. DCDuring TALK 09:59, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Incomprehensible

We received feedback on this page via OTRS, with the opinion that it is incomprehensible. To be honest, I can understand that opinion. Could somebody make it a bit more accessible? Jcb (talk) 13:01, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

Two years later and it is still incomprehensible. The first definition for noun appears to be a very sloppy attempt at paraphrasing dictionary.com. Sundayclose (talk) 00:44, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Can you explain where the problem is? First def looks okay to me. Equinox ◑ 02:27, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

/meɪmeɪ/

It seems that a common mispronounciation is /meɪmeɪ/. I've heard it in real life (highly likely to have been unintentional on the part of the speaker) and seen it online (clearly on purpose). —suzukaze (t・c) 23:04, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

I think that's a meme in itself, a deliberate mispronunciation for fun. Sometimes you see the spelling "maymay". Equinox ◑ 05:05, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

FWIW I have heard this unironically pronounced /mimi/ and /mɪm/ by two different Americans who had (somehow) never heard the word spoken before. I have not heard /meɪmeɪ/. - -sche (discuss) 22:07, 28 September 2022 (UTC)

RFV discussion: July–August 2019

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Please do not re-nominate for verification without comprehensive reasons for doing so.

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meme

Internet intransitive verb: to joke around. "I thought you guys were just memeing." Distinct from the other intransitive verb sense, to create and use memes ("the left can't meme"). Equinox ◑ 11:54, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

Have you really not encountered the sense given in the usage example before or are you just memeing?

Debatable if distinct. I think it is misdefined, it does not merely mean “joking” in the example, but denotes a current multi-layered sarcastic, ironic or cynical manner of engaging in debate where one takes a stance just so it is there, or maybe a form of exaggerating a point or strawmanning, so one gets asked: Did you really mean it like that or were you only memeing? I would define (and I wanted to add it once with some examples before I saw by the example the sense is already there): To behave not with strict seriousness, to make expressions as a homage to a meme, to do things “for the meme”. Or perhaps a more general definition would be appropriate: To adhere with one’s behaviour to a meme (because before it says: to create and use memes). Fay Freak (talk) 18:42, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 21:18, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

Hey I'd never seen this before. Thanks Kiwima, good job. Fay Freak, I dunno what to say except that this is not a use of the word that I was familiar with. Equinox ◑ 03:34, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 01:38, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

As an adjective

The third definition contains two examples, and the first of these is clearly showing an adjective. I've never seen the definition pinned down, but if someone could locate some examples, that would be excellent! 167.248.96.196 21:44, 28 September 2022 (UTC)