Memetics is a theory of the evolution of culture based on Darwinian principles with the meme as the unit of culture. The term “meme” was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, to illustrate the principle that he later called “Universal Darwinism”.
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Richard Dawkins (1976) apparently coined the word meme independently of Semon, writing this:
“‘Mimeme’ comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene’. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to ‘memory’, or to the French word même.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics