the original meme are the excess over and above

[GoodTaste]

Is this guy who tweeted below a native English speaker? I have no clue what "the original meme are the excess over and above" means. If he's not a native speaker, I'd rather stop guessing what he meant.

Kenton Sargeant tweeted

The covid deaths in the original meme are the excess over and above the original circa 8k. Or do you think the pandemic has massively reduced mortality?

Source: https://twitter.com/crankboy1965/status/1336955673788227584

 

[GoesStation]

It's correct and natural. Parse it like this:

The covid deaths in the original meme are the excess over and above the original circa 8k.

 

[GoodTaste]

Does "meme" simply mean "idea" there? And does "excess" mean"an amount that is more than acceptable, expected"?

 

[jutfrank]

It makes reasonably good sense to me. The graph shows the figures of actual deaths compared to the figures for expected deaths. The difference between them is what are attributed as 'Covid deaths'. 'the original meme' seems to refer to the tweet above (the one saying Deadliest Days in American History).

Yes, it was apparently written by a native speaker.

 

[jutfrank]

That's not a use of meme that I am familiar with

With respect, I think that's something to do with your seniority. The word is incredibly common nowadays in the very specific sense of an 'internet meme'. If you'd like to know what young people seem to me to be talking about for most of the time (!), see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme

The original sense of the word as coined by Richard Dawkins in the late 70s is much more general.

 

[teechar]

but then meme in any sense is not part of my everyday language.

Nor mine. I think it's an awful word altogether.

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
-------

I have to disagree. The word meme is one of the more useful "new words" used by "kids these days". Since the existence of the internet allows for easy and convenient sharing of funny pictures that spread virally from user to user, it's only natural to come up with a word to name the phenomenon—you need to name it something.

I personally love that internet meme fits the definition of meme, and I think it's quite beautiful that this word gets to name the internet phenomenon, partly because it makes people like myself discover the original word meme, but mostly because it proves Dawkins was right.

Speaking of memes, here's a thought I had some time ago. Could we call language in its entirety one giant meme of mankind? If not the whole of it, at least idioms look memey to me.

Let me finish with a relevant meme:

 

[jutfrank]

I couldn't agree more, Glizdka.

Could we call language in its entirety one giant meme of mankind? If not the whole of it, at least idioms look memey to me.

Language is an excellent example of memetic transmission. I can't think of a better one. It isn't quite that language is a meme—it's that linguistic items (words, idioms, etc.) replicate memetically.

 

[teechar]

I have to disagree.

OK by me. You're free to express your opinion.

The word meme is one of the more useful "new words" used by "kids these days". ... etc

That doesn't necessarily make it elegant, pleasant to utter or hear, or otherwise palatable. As I said above, you're free to think whatever you want of it, and so am I.

 

[Skrej]

To throw some gas on the meme fires, consider that it's used as a verb as well.

I memed his reaction.
You should totally meme that.
People have been meeming the unpopular governor.

 

[teechar]

Nothing unusual there, skrej.
Jutfrank has already shown other forms of it.

 

[GoesStation]

I'm with Glizdka here. "Meme" was adopted to describe a new phenomenon enabled by social media. It's here to stay regardless of how you or I feel about it. The absence of an alternative makes it very likely to stick around.

 

[Tarheel]

I see memes every day.

 

[emsr2d2]

To throw some gas on the meme fires, consider that it's used as a verb as well.

I memed his reaction.
You should totally meme that.
People have been meeming the unpopular governor.

Why does the continuous use "ee"? I would expect to see "meming".

 

[Skrej]

Just a typo on my part, I suppose. The linked entry says it can also be 'memeing'.

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
------

I don't like memeing. The orthography rules I was taught say that words ending in an e should have their e removed before adding the ing suffix.

Besides, it might encourage the incorrect pronunciations /'mi.mi/ and /'mi.mi.ɪŋ/.

 

[jutfrank]

(Sorry, couldn't help it.)

 

[Tdol]

Some use meme-ing.

 

[teechar]

How awful!

 

[GoodTaste]

View attachment 3766

(Sorry, couldn't help it.)

Yes, I appreciate memeing, which vividly reflects Dawkins' original intention.