MetaChat - Memechat: is it meem or memm?

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01 June 2006

Memechat: is it meem or memm? because I've been saying memm. It took me a long time to figure out what a meme was, too.

post by: puke & cry at: 22:27 | 34 comments

Glad it wasn't just me. I say mem, too. And though I now know better, I can't break the habit.

posted by jrossi4r 01 June | 22:28

i say meem. mem is french?

posted by amberglow 01 June | 22:28

Hell I don't know. I'm going to keep saying mem though.

posted by puke & cry 01 June | 22:30

Meme is meem, like gene is jeen.

posted by Divine_Wino 01 June | 22:32

meem

posted by trondant 01 June | 22:32

If you speak French, the first few times you see the word you'll automatically think "memm," as meme is the French word for "same."

I can categorically say that's not true.

But I've always said meem.

posted by occhiblu 01 June | 22:36

I say «même», you say «mime», we all scream «I scream».

posted by Miguel Cardoso 01 June | 22:42

miguel!!!!! : >

how are you?

posted by amberglow 01 June | 22:43

meem.

Pass it on.

posted by Triode 01 June | 22:46

Yup

m(geEne)me

Plus c'est la même chose.

posted by porpoise 01 June | 22:48

The more things change, the more they stay the meme.

posted by Miguel Cardoso 01 June | 22:49

I say "meem" because I remember the article "Selfish genes and selfish memes," in OMNI or something, and that was where I first heard of memes, and I assumed they rhymed.

posted by BoringPostcards 01 June | 22:50

But gene doesn't rhyme with meme, no matter what vowel you insert.

(myself: mEEm)

posted by Doohickie 01 June | 22:59

Miguel? The Miguel or a tribute username to Miguel?

posted by porpoise 01 June | 23:01

Term was coined by those French neurologists who wished to locate what their British counterparts called the 'engram' - the physiologic substrate of a particular memory or idea.

Before you can talk about something, you have to have a word for it; this was the one they picked.

posted by ikkyu2 01 June | 23:02

Wait...

In the Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins says that he had originated the term `meme', a cultural equivalent of `gene', by shortening `mimeme' which he says he derived from the Greek mimeisthai, to imitate.

So, any Greek speaker's care to weigh in on how mimeisthai is pronounced? (and I guess, mate it with gene)

posted by porpoise 01 June | 23:06

I always thought it was a play on the word gene, so I've always pronounced it meem. I had a friend that insisted it was "mem" but I kept telling him he was full of shit.

posted by Rhomboid 01 June | 23:14

Now my question is...

EcoRI - is it eeko RI or echo RI? (echo)

HindIII - hindee three or hind three? (hindee)

posted by porpoise 01 June | 23:16

mEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEm

You have to draw it out for maximum effect.

posted by cmonkey 01 June | 23:26

well, d?mitri is busy so you have to settle with my pronunciation:

μιμeισθαι pronounced as in mimisthe ('mimi rogers' + the 'th' as in theatre + the e as in pet, sorry I can't do the funky symbols of a dictionary.)

posted by carmina 01 June | 23:31

so, that means, I will have to say meem!

posted by carmina 01 June | 23:34

I know someone in California who says "mee-mee" for meme. She's crazy though, so, you know. It sort of makes sense, I guess, if you think of it in a "Me too!" sort of way.

posted by tracicle 01 June | 23:55

I have never (thank God) actually said "meme" out loud. No matter how wrong it may be, my internal dialogue pronounces it "meh-mey" (as if it were some Hawaiian word, perhaps) and there's not a damn thing any of you can do about it.

Another fantastic thing is that the spellchecker doesn't recognize it as a word. Damn memes.

posted by kyleg 02 June | 00:12

I've never said it aloud either, only internal monologe. meem just sounds too funny. I'll stick with mem.

posted by puke & cry 02 June | 00:23

It's "meem".

I sympathise. I received funny looks saying "tell-o-meers" for telomeres — when it is really "tee-lo-meers"...

posted by AlexReynolds 02 June | 00:28

I hate the word "meme" as much as I hate the words "meh", "bah", and "blog".

posted by knave 02 June | 02:49

If you speak French, the first few times you see the word you'll automatically think "memm," as meme is the French word for "same."

I can categorically say that's not true.

Agree with occhiblu. 'même' is the French word for same, and this is not the same as 'mème' which is the French for meme. I hate it when people tell me what I think.

I can say that if you've studied linguistics then you're likely to pronounce it 'meem' by analogy with 'morpheme', 'lexeme' and so on.

posted by altolinguistic 02 June | 03:51

If you *are* French (or French-speaking) then you will pronounce it 'memm' as that is how it is pronounced in French. Perhaps that's what was meant. I speak French and pronounce it 'meem' in English.

I'll go away now or risk being called a humourless pedant...

posted by altolinguistic 02 June | 03:53

Same vowel sound as "gene".

posted by Wolfdog 02 June | 06:37

Meme de la meme.

posted by danostuporstar 02 June | 07:07

mem-isth-ai is how I'd pronounce the Greek word. But the pronunciation of meme is "meem".

I might have told this story before, but I had a friend who was at Oxford and had a tutorial with Dawkins and was pretty friendly with him—she'd have tea with he and his wife weekly. But she became a pretty harsh critic of the idea of "memes".

I think most informed people recognize that that chapter of his book was very speculative and unrigorous. It was interesting. It's also not to be taken so seriously as many do.

I'll admit that "meme" has proven to be a pretty successful meme, though.

posted by kmellis 02 June | 07:44

Meem.

And me-three-deeya.

*mixes gin and tonic for Migs, whether he's real or not*

posted by me3dia 02 June | 10:10

I pronounce it "fad"

posted by Capn 02 June | 10:14

It's pronounced "knuckleduster highwayman." Now get back to the counterfeiting operation before I cut off your hands.

posted by Hugh Janus 02 June | 10:22

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