avatar

Meaning

1. (Hinduism) An incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
2. The embodiment of an idea or concept; an instantiation, especially a personification or incarnation.
3. (Internet) A complex and dynamic digital representation of a person or being in the form of a digital model, used online as a simulation or emulation of a person, or as a person's online alter ego, in a virtual world, virtual chat room, or metaverse.
4. (Internet) A simple and static or nearly static digital representation of a person or being in the form of a small digital object, used online as a simulacrum or token of a person or that person's online alter ego, in any digital environment but especially in nonvirtual, nonmetaversal ones.

Synonyms

incarnation

embodiment

personification

birth

impersonation

Translations

avatar

Avatar

avatar

Inkarnation

avatar

Verkörperung

incarnazione

avatar

symbole

Avatar -s

أَفَاتَار

incarnation

-e

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˌæv.əˈtɑː/

Etymology

First use appears c. 1784, in The Hindu Wife; or, The Enchanted Fruit, by William Jones. Borrowed from Hindustani अवतार / اوتار (avtār), from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”), a compound of अव (ava, “off, away, down”) and the vṛddhi-stem of the root √तॄ (√tṝ, “to cross”).
In the computing sense, some use appeared in video games in the 1980s, such as the online roleplaying game Habitat (1985) by Lucasfilm Games (today LucasArts), by Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer, later versions of the Ultima series (following religious use in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)), and the pen and paper role-playing game Shadowrun (1989). Also popularized by the novel Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson.