Avatar
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ˌæv.əˈtɑ/, /ˈæv.ə.tɑ/
- US IPA: /ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/
- Hyphenation: av + a + tar
Origin
from Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) अवतार
اوتار, from Sanskrit अवतार (ava-tÄra, "descent of a deity from a heaven"), a compound of अव (ava, "off, away, down") and the vá¹›ddhi-stem of the root तरति (√tá¹, "to cross").
In computing use, saw some use in 1980s videos games – 1985 online role-playing game Habitat (video game) by Lucasfilm Games (today LucasArts), by Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer,
Morabito, Margaret. "Enter the Online World of LucasFilm." Run Aug. 1986: 24-28
later versions of the Ultima (video game series) series (following religious use in 1985 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar), and 1989 pen and paper role-playing game Shadowrun. Popularized by 1992 novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
Online Etymology Dictionary
Full definition of avatar
Noun
avatar
(plural avatars)- In Hinduism the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
- The physical embodiment of an idea or concept; a personification.
- 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, dedicatory letter to Kidnapped the historical Alan Breac with his incarnation in the novel.And honest Alan, who was a grim fire-eater in his day, has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman's attention from his Ovid...
- (computing or gaming) A digital representation or handle of a person or being; often, it can take on any of various forms, as a participant chooses. i.e. 3D, animated, photo, sketch
- 1992 Neal Stephenson, Snow CrashThe people are pieces of software called avatars. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse.
- 27 November 2013, Roger Cohen, The past in our future [print version: International Herald Tribune Magazine, 2013, p. 21], Devices now track and record our every move and, whether we like it or not, each one of us will bequeath to posterity a virtual avatar, a digital being whose calls, messages, transactions, loves and losses will live on in a vast, unregulated cyberspace. The afterlife has arrived, at least for our cyberbeings.