avatar

See also: Avatar

English

WOTD – 2 July 2010

Alternative forms

• avatara (rare)
• Avator (obsolete)

Etymology

1784, Borrowing 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, 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.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: av‧a‧tar

Noun

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^[1]:

     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.

Translations

The earthly incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu

• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: অবতার (bn) (ôbtar)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 化身 (zh) (huàshēn)

• Finnish: avatar (fi)
• French: avatar (fr) m, incarnation (fr)
• German: Avatar (de) m, Avatara (de) m, Herabkunft f, Inkarnation (de) f
• Greek: αβατάρα f (avatára)
• Gujarati: અવતાર (avatār)
• Hindi: अवतार (hi) (avatār)
• Hungarian: avatára
• Italian: avatar m, incarnazione
• Japanese: 天降 (あまくだり, amakudari)

• Kannada: ಅವತಾರ (kn) (avatāra)
• Khmer: អវតារ (km) (a’vea’taa)
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Marathi: अवतार (avatāra)
• Oriya: ଅବତାର
• Portuguese: avatar (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਅਵਤਾਰ m (avatāra)
• Russian: авата́ра (ru) f (avatára), авата́р (ru) m (avatár), воплоще́ние (ru) n (voploščénije)
• Sanskrit: अवतार (sa) (ava-tāra)
• Spanish: avatar (es) m, encarnación
• Tamil: அவதாரம் (ta) (avatāram)
• Telugu: అవతారము (te) (avatāramu), అవతారం (te) (avatāraṃ)
• Thai: อวตาร (th) (à-wá-dtaan)

The physical embodiment of an idea or concept; a personification

• Arabic: أَفَاتَار‎ m (ʾafatār)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 化身 (zh) (huàshēn)

• Finnish: avatar (fi), ruumiillistuma, henkilöitymä (fi)
• French: avatar (fr) m, matérialisation (fr), personnification (fr)
• German: Verkörperung f
• Greek: ενσάρκωση (el) f (ensárkosi)
• Hungarian: inkarnáció (hu), megtestesülés (hu)
• Japanese: 化身 (けしん, keshin), アバター (abatā)

• Korean: 아바타 (ko) (abata)
• Malayalam: അവതാരം (ml) (avatāraṃ)
• Marathi: अवतार m (avatāra)
• Portuguese: personificação (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਅਵਤਾਰ (avatāra)
• Russian: воплоще́ние (ru) n (voploščénije), авата́р (ru) m (avatár)
• Spanish: materialización f, personificación (es) f
• Thai: บุคคลวัต, บุคลาธิษฐาน

A digital representation of a person or being

• Arabic: أَفَاتَار‎ m (ʾafatār)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 紙娃娃, 纸娃娃 (zhǐwáwá), 頭像 (zh), 头像 (zh) (tóuxiàng)

• Czech: avatar m
• Dutch: avatar (nl) c, (informal) ava c
• Finnish: avatar (fi), hahmo (fi)
• French: avatar (fr) m, emblème (fr), symbole (fr)
• German: Avatar (de) m
• Greek: αβατάρ n (avatár)

• Italian: avatar m, emblema (it), simbolo (it)
• Japanese: アバター (abatā)
• Korean: 아바타 (ko) (abata)
• Portuguese: avatar (pt) m
• Russian: авата́р (ru) m (avatár)
• Spanish: avatar (es) m, emblema (es), símbolo (es)
• Swedish: avatar (sv)
• Thai: อวตาร (th) (à-wá-dtaan)
• Turkish: avatar (tr)

See also

Avatar on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

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French

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.va.taʁ/
• Homophone: avatars
• Hyphenation: a‧va‧tar

Noun

avatar m (plural avatars)

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

Further reading

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

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Italian

Noun

avatar m (invariable)

1. avatar (all senses)

Anagrams

• tarava, varata

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Portuguese

Noun

avatar m

1. avatar

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Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

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

Noun

avàtār m (Cyrillic spelling ава̀та̄р)

1. avatar

Declension

Declension of avatar

	singular	plural
nominative	avàtār	avatari
genitive	avatára	avatara
dative	avataru	avatarima
accusative	avatara	avatare
vocative	avatare	avatari
locative	avataru	avatarima
instrumental	avatarom	avatarima

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Spanish

Noun

avatar m (plural avatares)

1. avatar