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Origin and history of avatar

avatar(n.)

1784, "descent of a Hindu deity to earth in an incarnate or tangible form," from Sanskrit avatarana "descent" (of a deity to the earth in incarnate form), from ava- "off, down" (from PIE root *au- (2) "off, away") + base of tarati "(he) crosses over" (from PIE root *tere- (2) "cross over, pass through, overcome").

The meaning "concrete embodiment of something abstract" is from 1815. In computer use, it seems to trace to the novel "Snowcrash" (1992) by Neal Stephenson.

also from 1784

Entries linking to avatar

*tere-(2)

*terə- Proto-Indo-European root meaning "cross over, pass through, overcome."

It might form all or part of: avatar; caravanserai; nectar; nectarine; nostril; seraglio; thrill; thorough; through; tranche; trans-; transient; transom; trench; truculent; truncate; trunk.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit tirah, Avestan taro "through, beyond;" Latin trans "beyond;" Old Irish tre, Welsh tra "through;" Old English þurh "through."

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    Pegasus
    weather-god: "the mythological figure of Pegasus carrying the lightning and thunderbolt of Zeus, ... is likely to represent an avatar...
    edification
    mid-14c., in religious use, "a building up of the soul," from Old French edificacion "a building, construction; edification, good example," and directly from Latin aedificationem (nominative aedificatio) "construction, the process of building; a building, an edifice," in Late Lat
    peace
    mid-12c., pes, "freedom from civil disorder, internal peace of a nation," from Anglo-French pes, Old French pais "peace, reconciliation, silence, permission" (11c., Modern French paix), from Latin pacem (nominative pax) "compact, agreement, treaty of peace, tranquility, absence o
    syncope
    1520s, "contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds or letters," from Latin syncope "contraction of a word by elision," from Greek synkopē "contraction of a word," literally "a cutting off, cutting up, cutting short," from synkoptein "to cut up." This is from syn- "togethe
    affirmation
    early 15c., affirmacioun, "assertion that something is true," from Old French afermacion "confirmation" (14c.), from Latin affirmationem (nominative affirmatio) "an affirmation, solid assurance," noun of action from past-participle stem of affirmare "to make steady; strengthen; c
    heresy
    "doctrine or opinion at variance with established standards" (or, as Johnson defines it, "an opinion of private men different from that of the catholick and orthodox church"), c. 1200, from Old French heresie, eresie "heresy," and by extension "sodomy, immorality" (12c.), from La
    gender
    c. 1300, "kind, sort, class, a class or kind of persons or things sharing certain traits," from Old French gendre, genre "kind, species; character; gender" (12c., Modern French genre), from stem of Latin genus (genitive generis) "race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species,"
    atavism
    1833, in biology, "reversion by influence of heredity to ancestral characteristics, resemblance of a given organism to some remote ancestor, return to an early or original type," from French atavisme, attested by 1820s, said to have been coined by French botanist Antoine-Nicolas
    dilemma
    1520s in rhetoric (see below), from Late Latin dilemma, from Greek dilemma "double proposition," a technical term in rhetoric, from di- "two" (see di- (1)) + lemma "premise, anything received or taken," from root of lambanein "to take" (see lemma). A form of argument in which it

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