# What terms did people use before "Trope" and "Meme" took over? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 16, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879 "2011-01-16T23:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/21 "2011-01-17T19:21:05Z")
Memes, properly, are ideas or concepts. Internet “memes” are, um, running jokes I think. Or something. Tropes are tropes. Also elements, tendencies, repeated themes, motifs, etc. I think the common word when I was a kid was motif. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/22 "2011-01-17T19:21:18Z")
Fad? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/23 "2011-01-17T19:34:35Z")
Stereotype, fad, craze, chestnut, pattern, theme… I think trope and meme were necessary to provide specific words for the modern world of mass communication. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/24 "2011-01-17T22:51:40Z")
Per previous posters: **Fad** to my mind has more of a suggestion of short-lived fashion for some concrete object. Macrame wall hangings or geometric curve string art were fads. (What were those things called? Dark painted board, little nails, bright coloured strings making geometric curves…) **Craze** suggests juvenile enthusiasm. Beyblades are currently a craze amongst children of my son’s age hereabouts… just as they were about 10 years ago. 🙂 And just as they were many years earlier when they were just “tops”. Pet rocks were arguably either a fad or a craze. ---
**Author:** ![Itsbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71c47a/32.png) [@Itsbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itsbob)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/25 "2015-04-08T15:09:17Z")
Archetype/trope and Myth/meme. Source and manifestation? Seed and propagated virus? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/26 "2015-04-08T15:37:14Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I will never use the term meme except in posts to state I will never use the term meme. Meh, that’s become a trope. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/27 "2015-04-08T16:37:27Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > (What were those things called? Dark painted board, little nails, bright coloured strings making geometric curves…) [String art](https://www.google.com/search?q=string+art&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&gws_rd=ssl) ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/28 "2015-04-08T17:50:48Z")
To some extent “Faxlore” has a similar pedigree. Amusing images and titles which were propagated from office to office via the fax machine. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/29 "2015-04-08T17:57:07Z")
I’d just like to say thanks for the thread! This shit really bugs me! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/30 "2015-04-08T19:46:18Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I will never use the term meme except in posts to state I will never use the term meme. The first rule of meme club is … ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/31 "2015-04-08T21:28:11Z")
“It is a truth universally acknowledged. . ." ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/32 "2015-04-09T00:53:48Z")
nm. Ninja’d by **kayaker**. OK…wait…how about this: > [@kayaker](#): > > Meh, that’s become a trope. That’s the beauty of it! ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/33 "2015-04-09T01:26:41Z")
“Germ of an idea”? ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879/34 "2015-04-09T01:47:37Z")
As **JRDelirious** points out, “trope” is indeed an old, long-lasting term that just recently returned to the general lexicon (likely thanks to TVTropes). Your distaste for it is unfounded. “Meme” is a bit more recent, but the usage for “internet meme” (i.e., a picture, often with text, which goes viral or gets repeated with new text, etc.) is basically a different use of the original term which has overtaken the original meaning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-terms-did-people-use-before-trope-and-meme-took-over/567879.md?page=1)