avatar

• avatara (rare)
• Avator (obsolete)

1784,[1] borrowed from Hindi अवतार (avtār) or from Urdu اوتار‎ (avatār), both borrowed from Sanskrit अवतार (ava-tāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”), a compound of अव (ava, “off, away, down”) and the vṛddhi-stem of the root तरति (√tṝ, “to cross”).

In computing use, saw some use in 1980s videos games – 1985 online role-playing game Habitat by Lucasfilm Games (today LucasArts), by Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer,[2] later versions of the Ultima 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.[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌæv.əˈtɑ/, /ˈæv.ə.tɑ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: av‧a‧tar

avatar (plural avatars)

1. (Hinduism) the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
2. The physical embodiment of an idea or concept; a personification.
   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, dedicatory letter to Kidnapped [contrasting 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...

3. (computing or video games) A digital representation of a person or being; often, it can take on any of various forms, as a participant chooses. e.g. 3D, animated, photo, sketch of a person or a person's alter ego, sometimes used in a virtual world or virtual chat room.
   • 1992 Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

     The people are pieces of software called avatars. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse.

   • 2013 November 27, Roger Cohen, “The past in our future [print version: International Herald Tribune Magazine, 2013, p. 21]”, in The New York Times‎:

     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.

Avatar on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

From Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) अवतार (avtār) / اوتار‎ (avatār), from Sanskrit अवतार (ava-tāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”), a compound of अव (ava, “off, away, down”) and the vṛddhi-stem of the root तरति (√tṝ, “to cross”).

• IPA^(key): /a.va.taʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: avatars
• Hyphenation: a‧va‧tar

avatar m (plural avatars)

1. (religion, hinduism) avatar
2. (computing) avatar

• “avatar” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

avatar m (invariable)

1. avatar (all senses)

• tarava, varata

avatar m

1. avatar

• IPA^(key): /aʋǎtaːr/
• Hyphenation: a‧va‧tar

avàtār m (Cyrillic spelling ава̀та̄р)

1. avatar

avatar m (plural avatares)

1. avatar