Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, coined the term "meme" in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, likening discrete bits of human culture that propagate between people to genes. Dawkins shortened the ancient Greek word "mimeme" – with an apology to his classicist colleagues – to meme, to rhyme with "cream". He suggested that memes were melodies, ideas, catchphrases or bits of information that leap from brain to brain through imitation, expediting their transmission.