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avatar

noun
/əʋ(ə)t̪ɑr//ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/CA

Etymology

First use appears c. 1784, in The Hindu Wife; or, The Enchanted Fruit, by William Jones. Borrowed from Hindustani अवतार (avtār) / 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”) (whence तरति (tarati)). 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.

  1. derived from अवतार — “descent of a deity from a heaven”

Definitions

  1. An incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.

  2. The embodiment of an idea or concept

    The embodiment of an idea or concept; an instantiation, especially a personification or incarnation.

    • ...that a new avatar of Mrs. Siddons has appeared at Covent Garden, in the shape of her niece Fanny Kemble...

  3. A digital representation of a person or being in the form of a digital model, used online…

    A 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.

    • The people are pieces of software called avatars. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse.
    • A virtual intelligence is an advanced form of user interface software. VIs use a variety of methods to simulate natural conversation, including an audio interface and an avatar personality to interact with.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. A simple and static or nearly static digital representation of a person or being in the…

      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.

    2. A male given name from Sanskrit used in India.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for avatar. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA