avatar

avatar (ˈævəˌtɑː)
—n
1.	Hinduism the manifestation of a deity, notably Vishnu, in human, superhuman, or animal form
2.	a visible manifestation or embodiment of an abstract concept; archetype
3.	a movable image that represents a person in a virtual reality environment or in cyberspace
[C18: from Sanskrit avatāra a going down, from avatarati he descends, from ava down + tarati he passes over]

avatar

avatar [(av-uh-tahr)]

In Hinduism, a god made visibly present, especially in a human form. The Buddha is considered an avatar of the god Vishnu.

Note: By extension, an “avatar” is any new embodiment of an old idea.

avatar

n. Syn. [in Hindu mythology, the incarnation of a god]
1. Among people working on virtual reality and cyberspace interfaces, an "avatar" is an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality. The term is sometimes used on MUDs.
2. [CMU, Tektronix] root, superuser. There are quite a few Unix machines on which the name of the superuser account is `avatar' rather than `root'. This quirk was originated by a CMU hacker who found the terms `root' and `superuser' unimaginative, and thought `avatar' might better impress people with the responsibility they were accepting.

avatar definition

1. An image representing a user in a multi-user virtual reality (or VR-like, in the case of Palace) space.
2. (CMU, Tektronix) root, superuser. There are quite a few Unix computers on which the name of the superuser account is "avatar" rather than "root". This quirk was originated by a CMU hacker who disliked the term "superuser", and was propagated through an ex-CMU hacker at Tektronix.
[Jargon File]
(1997-09-14)