crystalfaeries

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:

  meme
      n 1: a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior)
           that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic
           means (as by imitation);
	  "memes are the cultural counterpart of genes".

From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]:

  meme
   /meem/, n.
  
      [coined by analogy with "gene", by Richard Dawkins] An idea considered as a
      {replicator}, esp. with the connotation that memes parasitize people into
      propagating them much as viruses do. Used esp. in the phrase meme complex
      denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organized belief
      system, such as a religion. This lexicon is an (epidemiological) vector of
      the "hacker subculture" meme complex; each entry might be considered a
      meme. However, meme is often misused to mean meme complex. Use of the term
      connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool-
      and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive
      ideas has superseded biological evolution by selection of hereditary
      traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.

Faery blessings -- celeste