go viral

== English == === Etymology === The sociologic phenomenon was named thus because it is analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, with exponential potential. This phrasal verb developed in the late 20th or early 21st century as a name for a phenomenon that has existed since humans became capable of exposing one another to ideas in highly contagious ways; thus, gossip and rumor in close-quartered populations, print circulation, and broadcasting were all enough to produce it, but the advent of the internet, and more specifically the web era and smartphone era, provided many new instances and the occasion to bestow a name on the theme. See also meme, a word coined in 1976 for a phenomenon as old as human interaction. === Verb === go viral (third-person singular simple present goes viral, present participle going viral, simple past went viral, past participle gone viral) (sociology) To be rapidly and frequently shared, especially through social media, but (with retroactive application to pre-internet occurrences) also via gossip or as a collective response to broadcasting or widespread print circulation. ==== Descendants ==== → Dutch: viral gaan (calque) → German: viral gehen (calque) ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== break the Internet