avatar

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Avatar (Hinduism)

Wikipedia

• avatara (rare)

First use appears c. 1784,^[1] in The Hindu Wife; or, The Enchanted Fruit, by William Jones. 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 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,^[2] 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]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌæv.əˈtɑː/, /ˈæv.ə.tɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/
• (India) IPA^(key): /əʋət̪ɑːɾ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Hyphenation: av‧a‧tar
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)

avatar (plural avatars)

2. (Hinduism) An incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
4. The embodiment of an idea or concept; an instantiation, especially a personification or incarnation.
   • 1831, L E 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.]

6. (Internet, video games) 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:

     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.

8. (Internet, 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 nonvirtual, nonmetaversal ones.

   Hyponyms: profile picture, pfp, user pic

   Coordinate term: icon

• → Japanese: アバター

• Category:Avatar on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Borrowed from English, from Sanskrit.

• IPA^(key): (Central)
• IPA^(key): (Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencia)

avatar m (plural avatars)

1. (religion) avatar
2. (computer games) avatar

• avarat, tarava

From English avatar, from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑʋɑtɑr/,
• Rhymes: -ɑʋɑtɑr
• Hyphenation^(key): ava‧tar

avatar

1. avatar (earthly incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu)
2. (rare) avatar (physical embodiment of an idea or concept)

   Synonym: ruumiillistuma

3. (rare) avatar (digital representation of a person or being)

   Synonyms: hahmo, virtuaalihahmo

• “avatar”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

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”).

• IPA^(key): /a.va.taʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: avatars
• Hyphenation: ava‧tar

avatar m (plural avatars)

1. (Hinduism) avatar
2. (computing) avatar

• “avatar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

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.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /aˈvatar/
• Rhymes: -atar
• Syllabification: a‧va‧tar

avatar

1. (Hinduism) avatar (the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu)

   Synonym: awatara

2. (computing) avatar (a digital representation of a person or being)

• “avatar” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

avatar

Wikipedia ^it

• avatara

Unadapted borrowing from English avatar.

avatar m (invariable)

1. avatar (all senses)

• tarava, varata

Borrowed from French avatar, from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”).^[1][2] The computing sense comes from English.

• Hyphenation: a‧va‧tar

avatar m (plural avatares)

2. (Hinduism) avatar
4. (computing, video games) avatar

Borrowed from French avatar.

avatar n (plural avataruri)

1. avatar

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

avàtār m (Cyrillic spelling ава̀та̄р)

1. avatar

• avatara

• IPA^(key): /abaˈtaɾ/
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: a‧va‧tar

avatar m (plural avatares)

1. avatar
2. (in the plural) vicissitudes, ups and downs

• “avatar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

avatar

Wikipedia ^sv

avatar c

1. (Hinduism) an avatar
2. an avatar (representing a user on an internet forum, a player in a video game, or the like)

• avatar in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• avatar in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• avatar in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)