Anonymous asked: When I first read the word "meme" I thought about the french word "même" and I was like... how does this make sense and why do they use french?
I’m not a meme historian but from what I know APPARENTLY the word “meme” comes from “même” itself, though I don’t see the connexion
Okay I do not at all speak French, but I…have a guess? The basic definition of ‘meme’ is an idea repeated through a community in identical or strongly repetitive format (it had this definition before the rise of the Internet, too). The French word même used as an adjective can mean ‘same’ or ‘selfsame,’ so my guess is that that’s the connection, a model on the concept of identical-ness or imitation.
EDIT: I did some research and it turns out that the word meme actually comes from a shortened form of the Greek word mimema, meaning a thing imitated, and presumably même comes from the same word, so…there we go, etymology for the interwebs.
