avatar
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Attested 1784,[1] 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 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 the 1992 novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌæv.əˈtɑː/, /ˈæv.ə.tɑː/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Hyphenation: av‧a‧tar
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
Noun[edit]
avatar (plural avatars)
- (Hinduism) An incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
- The embodiment of an idea or concept; an instantiation, especially a personification or incarnation.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 177:
- ...that a new avatar of Mrs. Siddons has appeared at Covent Garden, in the shape of her niece Fanny Kemble...
- 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dedication”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, pages v–vi:
- 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, [...] [Contrasting the historical Alan Breac with his incarnation in the novel.]
- (computing, video games, metaverse) 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.
- 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, pages 35–36:
- The people are pieces of software called avatars. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse.
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Computers: Virtual Intelligence (VI) Codex entry:
- 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.
- 2013 November 27, Roger Cohen, “The past in our future”, 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.
- (computing, video games) 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 non-virtual, non-metaversal ones.
- Hyponyms: profile picture, user pic
- Coordinate term: icon
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
- → Japanese: アバター
Translations[edit]
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See also[edit]
Avatar on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “avatar”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Morabito, Margaret. "Enter the Online World of LucasFilm." Run Aug. 1986: 24-28
Catalan[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from English, from Sanskrit.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar m (plural avatars)
Anagrams[edit]
Finnish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From English avatar, from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar
- avatar (earthly incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu)
- (rare) avatar (physical embodiment of an idea or concept)
- Synonym: ruumiillistuma
- (rare) avatar (digital representation of a person or being)
- Synonyms: hahmo, virtuaalihahmo
Declension[edit]
Inflection of avatar (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
nominative | avatar | avatarit | ||
genitive | avatarin | avatarien | ||
partitive | avataria | avatareja | ||
illative | avatariin | avatareihin | ||
singular | plural | |||
nominative | avatar | avatarit | ||
accusative | nom. | avatar | avatarit | |
gen. | avatarin | |||
genitive | avatarin | avatarien | ||
partitive | avataria | avatareja | ||
inessive | avatarissa | avatareissa | ||
elative | avatarista | avatareista | ||
illative | avatariin | avatareihin | ||
adessive | avatarilla | avatareilla | ||
ablative | avatarilta | avatareilta | ||
allative | avatarille | avatareille | ||
essive | avatarina | avatareina | ||
translative | avatariksi | avatareiksi | ||
abessive | avataritta | avatareitta | ||
instructive | — | avatarein | ||
comitative | See the possessive forms below. |
Further reading[edit]
- “avatar”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][2] (online dictionary, continuously updated, in Finnish), Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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 तरति (√tṝ, “to cross”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar m (plural avatars)
Further reading[edit]
- “avatar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Indonesian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from English avatar, 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 तरति (√tṝ, “to cross”). Doublet of awatara.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar
- avatar,
- (Hinduism) the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
- Synonym: awatara
- (computing) 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.
- (Hinduism) the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
Further reading[edit]
- “avatar” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.
Italian[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Unadapted borrowing from English avatar.
Noun[edit]
avatar m (invariable)
- avatar (all senses)
Anagrams[edit]
Portuguese[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French avatar, from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”).[1][2] The computing sense comes from English.
Pronunciation[edit]
- Hyphenation: a‧va‧tar
Noun[edit]
avatar m (plural avatares)
References[edit]
- ^ “avatar” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2023.
- ^ “avatar” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.
Romanian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar n (plural avataruri)
Declension[edit]
singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) avatar | avatarul | (niște) avataruri | avatarurile |
genitive/dative | (unui) avatar | avatarului | (unor) avataruri | avatarurilor |
vocative | avatarule | avatarurilor |
Serbo-Croatian[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
avàtār m (Cyrillic spelling ава̀та̄р)
Declension[edit]
Spanish[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar m (plural avatares)
- avatar
- (in the plural) vicissitudes, ups and downs
Further reading[edit]
- “avatar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *terh₂-
- English terms derived from Sanskrit
- English terms derived from the Sanskrit root अवतॄ
- English terms derived from the Sanskrit root तॄ
- English terms borrowed from Hindustani languages
- English terms derived from Hindustani languages
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɑː(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɑː(ɹ)/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Hinduism
- English terms with quotations
- en:Computing
- en:Video games
- Catalan terms borrowed from English
- Catalan terms derived from English
- Catalan terms derived from Sanskrit
- Catalan 3-syllable words
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan nouns
- Catalan countable nouns
- Catalan masculine nouns
- ca:Video games
- Finnish terms borrowed from English
- Finnish terms derived from English
- Finnish terms derived from Sanskrit
- Finnish 3-syllable words
- Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑʋɑtɑr
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑʋɑtɑr/3 syllables
- Finnish lemmas
- Finnish nouns
- Finnish terms with rare senses
- Finnish risti-type nominals
- French terms derived from Hindustani languages
- French terms derived from Sanskrit
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French terms with homophones
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Hinduism
- fr:Computing
- Indonesian terms borrowed from English
- Indonesian terms derived from English
- Indonesian terms derived from Hindustani languages
- Indonesian terms derived from Sanskrit
- Indonesian doublets
- Indonesian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Indonesian lemmas
- Indonesian nouns
- id:Hinduism
- id:Computing
- Italian terms borrowed from English
- Italian unadapted borrowings from English
- Italian terms derived from English
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian indeclinable nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian masculine nouns
- Portuguese terms borrowed from French
- Portuguese terms derived from French
- Portuguese terms derived from Sanskrit
- Portuguese terms borrowed from English
- Portuguese terms derived from English
- Portuguese 3-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- pt:Hinduism
- pt:Computing
- pt:Video games
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian neuter nouns
- Serbo-Croatian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Serbo-Croatian lemmas
- Serbo-Croatian nouns
- Serbo-Croatian masculine nouns
- Spanish 3-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/aɾ
- Rhymes:Spanish/aɾ/3 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns