avatar means A male given name from Sanskrit used in India.
avatar is pronounced /əʋ(ə)t̪ɑr/.
Why “avatar” is a great word
A digital representation of a person or being, used as an online persona or character in a virtual environment. From Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, "descent"), a compound of अव (ava, "down") and the vṛddhi-stem of the root तॄ (tṝ, "to cross"), first used in English c. 1784 by William Jones; the computing sense was popularized in the 1980s and 1990s by works such as the video game Ultima IV and the novel Snow Crash. Unlike "persona," which is the social mask worn in life, or "incarnation," which implies a fleshly embodiment of the sacred, an avatar is a consciously crafted image for a realm without weight. It is the pixelated knight bowing in a multiplayer realm, the chosen silhouette that negotiates in worlds without gravity, the crude arrangement of polygons that nonetheless aches with its user's loneliness: a descending self, crossing downward into somewhere that is nowhere, wearing a face that is no face at all.
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.
name
- A male given name from Sanskrit used in India.
noun
- An incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
- The embodiment of an idea or concept; an instantiation, especially a personification or incarnation.e.g.“...that a new avatar of Mrs. Siddons has appeared at Covent Garden, in the shape of her niece Fanny Kemble...”
- 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.e.g.“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 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.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- incarnation 84% match — An incarnate being or form. vs avatar →
- incarnate 82% match — Embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified. vs avatar →
- simulacrum 81% match — A physical image or representation of a deity, person, or thing. vs avatar →
- deity 80% match — Synonym of divinity: the state, position, or fact of being a god. vs avatar →
- murti 80% match — A sacred image of a deity. vs avatar →
- virtual 80% match — In effect or essence, rather than in fact or reality; also, imitated, simulated. vs avatar →
- multipresence 80% match — Presence in multiple places simultaneously, a lesser form of omnipresence. vs avatar →
- maya 79% match — Magic; supernatural power as held by the gods. vs avatar →