Sanskrit

The term "avatar" derives from the Sanskrit word Avatāra which means "descent" and usually implies a deliberate descent into mortal realms for special purposes. The term is used primarily in Hinduism, for incarnations of Vishnu the Preserver, whom many Hindus worship as God. The Dasavatara are ten particular "great" incarnations of Vishnu. The "Golden Avatar" popularly known as Gouranga is said to be the most recent descent.

Among people working on virtual reality and cyberspace interfaces, an avatar (sometimes AV, av, or avvie) is an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality. The term is sometimes used on MUDs, in computer role-playing games, and shared non-gaming universes such as Active Worlds, There, Second Life, and The Palace.

This definition has recently been applied to online virtual communities and Internet forums in particular, as a picture that a member/user of such a community/forum has elected to display alongside his or her contributions in order to represent him- or herself. Avatars have also become popular in instant messaging, and are sometimes referred to as buddy icons.

"The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions."