avatar
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌæv.əˈtɑ/, /ˈæv.ə.tɑ/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Hyphenation: av‧a‧tar
Noun[edit]
avatar (plural avatars)
- (Hinduism) the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
- 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...
- 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, dedicatory letter to Kidnapped [contrasting the historical Alan Breac with his incarnation in the novel].
- (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.
- 1992 Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
Translations[edit]
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See also[edit]
Avatar on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
References[edit]
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar m (plural avatars)
Further reading[edit]
- “avatar” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Italian[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar m (invariable)
- avatar (all senses)
Anagrams[edit]
Portuguese[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar m
Serbo-Croatian[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
avàtār m (Cyrillic spelling ава̀та̄р)
Declension[edit]
Spanish[edit]
Noun[edit]
avatar m (plural avatares)
- English terms borrowed from Hindi
- English terms derived from Hindi
- English terms borrowed from Urdu
- English terms derived from Urdu
- English terms derived from Sanskrit
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Hinduism
- en:Computing
- en:Video games
- English terms with quotations
- French terms derived from Hindi
- French terms derived from Urdu
- French terms derived from Sanskrit
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French masculine nouns
- French countable nouns
- fr:Religion
- fr:Computing
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Serbo-Croatian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Serbo-Croatian lemmas
- Serbo-Croatian nouns
- Serbo-Croatian masculine nouns
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns