Monday, 19 March 2012

The collective noun for memes

I think there's a need for a collective noun for memes. This is partly because of the way memes sometimes tend to clump together - in conferences and churches for example - or in the minds of the paranoid or obsessed.

The resulting effects are rather like a flock of birds or a school of fish...

Here are some of the more noteworthy proposals so far:

  • a library of memes
  • a plague of memes
  • an epidemic of memes
  • a colony of memes
  • a swarm of memes
  • a pool of memes
  • a plethora of memes
  • an infestation of memes
  • a hash of memes
  • a copy of memes
  • a sneeze of memes
  • a contagiousness of memes
  • an infectiousness of memes
There's also a proposed collective noun for internet memes:
  • a roflcopter of internet memes
The sources for many of those are here and here.

If you think you can contribute, please make your mark in the comments below - or simply tweet with hashtag: #collectivenouns.

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