this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
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Memes

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Post memes here.

A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

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[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Is it Feb-ruary or Feb-uary? Because I prefer -uary, and what is this "ru"?

I pronounce it feb-u-wary

[–] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We started pronouncing it Febuary instead of February to match January. From Wiktionary:
The pronunciation of the first r as /j/ has come about by dissimilation and analogy with January. In the UK pronunciation /ˈfɛb.ɹi/ (*Febry) the sequence /ɹə.ɹi/ in /ˈfɛb.ɹə.ɹi/ (*Febrery) is simplified to /ɹi/ by haplology.

Also, we should bring back the Old English solmōnaþ (“mud month”).

[–] hakase@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This type of analogy is specifically called series contamination, where items that frequently are pronounced together in a series affect each other. Also happened in proto-Germanic with the 'n' in ten, from the 'n' in nine (and in the opposite direction of Latin novem and decem; cf. nonus "ninth" to see the original 'n').

Also probably at least partially responsible for the pronunciation of Wednesday seen in the meme, based on Tuesday.

Edit: "ten" is not an example. See below for explanation.

[–] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is the n in Germanic words for ten not just a reflex of m in PIE *dekm̥t?

[–] hakase@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ah, yeah, quite possibly, good catch. I suppose it could be either assimilation to final -t before it dropped off, or final nasal merger to -n, a la Greek. I'll check and report back.

Edit: Yeah, you're probably right that it's not series contamination, and is instead just assimilation. Ringe's "From PIE to Proto-Germanic", pg. 81, has the regular outcome of syllabic sonorants as *uX, so -um-, -un-, -ul-, -ur-.

So, while we'd expect dekumt and humda for "ten" and "hundred" (and may indeed have gotten them at some intermediate stage), we instead get tehun and hunda, making this pretty clearly regressive nasal assimilation of place. Note, e.g. *smH- 'summer' giving OE "sumor" instead, so when not before another consonant we don't see the assimilation.

That's what I get for doing off-the-cuff etymology, I suppose.