avatar meaning

[hensylee]

I get a 'word of the day' and guess what todays's word is:

The Word of the Day for Sep 24 is:
avatar \AV-uh-tahr\ noun

: an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user (as in a computer game or an online shopping site)


Example sentence:
James liked to use a cartoon character as his avatar for the online bulletin board.

Did you know?
"Avatar" started life as a word meaning "the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu)." It derives from a Sanskrit word meaning "descent," is ultimately from a word that means "he crosses over," and referred to the descent of a deity to the earth in some earthly form. It later came to refer to any incarnation in human form, and then to any embodiment (such as of a concept or philosophy), which may or may not be a person. Recently, "avatar" has developed another new sense, one that is distantly related to the concept of a descending deity via the idea of "embodiment" ? it can be used for the image that a person chooses as his or her "embodiment" in an electronic medium.

NOTE: Today's Word of the Day can be found in the NEW Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, along with more than 10,000 new words and senses. Find out more at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/book/diction/c11.htm

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

 

[Ross]

Were you getting a wee bit bored this morning?

 

[bvdr]

Thanks Ann. I have always been fascinated with where words and phrases originated. By the way, I loved the picture of your dogs too. Have a good day!

 

[Rain]

Check out Quetlin?s Avatar.........

Check out Quetlin?s Avatar.........

Hey Ann,

Here?s my word for the day ?Kokopelli?. If you pass through Cortez, you will see this little guy everywhere. Outside ?The Main Street Brewery? chuggin a mug of beer, outside ?Kokopelli Bike & Board? riding a bike, etc. I even have a big metal picture of him hanging off the moon by his finger tips in my office.

Kokopelli
Ko-ko-pel-li (kôô kôô pel ì lêê) n. {der. Hopi "kokopilau" (koko = wood, pilau = hump)} the humpbacked Flute Player, mythical Hopi symbol of fertility, replenishment, music, dance, and mischief. The Anasazi or "Ancient Ones" were primarily farmers, growing corn, beans, and squash in the Four Corners area on the Colorado Plateau. Both the Basketmaker Period (dating at least from about 200 B.C.) and the Pueblo Period (dating from about 700 A.D.) include the humpbacked flute player among their deities or supernaturals. Long-distance trade networks and migrations from Mexico apparently helped spread cultural and religious elements, so that by 1500 A.D. fluteplayer images were also included in the Hohokam, Mogollon, and Fremont cultures, in petroglyphs (rock carving), pictographs (rock painting), kiva murals, ceramics and baskets. Today, Kokopelli is one of the Hopi kachinas, and is in many traditional stories and songs of Native Americans of the desert southwest.

In Kokopelli, Flute Player Images in Rock Art, Dennis Slifer and James Duffield mention "...widely held beliefs that Kokopelli was a fertility symbol, roving minstrel or trader, rain priest, hunting magician, trickster, and seducer of maidens..."

"In Pueblo myths, Kokopelli carries in his hump seeds, babies, and blankets to offer to maidens that he seduces. In upper Rio Grande pueblos, he wandered between villages with bags of songs on his back. As a fertility symbol, he was welcome during corn-planting season and was sought after by barren wives, although avoided by shy maidens."

Don't you just love Quetlin's Avatar?!

 

[weekycat]

GMTA Ann!

GMTA Ann!

I just came online, looked at my "word of the day" and also saw "avatar". I was going to post the same thing, but you beat me to it!

 

[ccrawford]

If you think about it, all the words we use came from somewhere. The study of word origins is called etymology, often confused with entomology (study of insects). If you do a search for "word origins" using your search engine, you'll find a lot of sites that deal with this fascinating topic. wordorigins.org is one of them. Chris

 

[Mara]

You etymologists should read Bill Bryson's book "Mother Tongue." It is a very entertaining look at the origins and evolution of the English language.

Thanks for the word of the day, Ann.
Tell me when you get to quixotic. (my favorite word).
Maybe Hank would add that to the main page of the VR.com site.
The VR.com word of the day!

 

[bvdr]

just an aside.....my just turned 3 grandson told me the other day that one of his toy train engines was "rather diabolical". I asked him what he meant and he told me "you know, he gets into alot of mischief". He's really into the Thomas the Train realm from the UK and some of the vocabulary he has picked up is incredible.

 

[Rain]

The Ancient Ones...

The Ancient Ones...

Hey Quetlin,

Our family farm is in the shadow of Mesa Verde Natl. Park. So I grew up surrounded by ?the ancient ones?. Our farm was littered with arrow heads, pottery, etc when I was a kid. Back then we could hike up on the Mesa any time we wanted... there are pictoglyphs everywhere on the back side of the mesa (and a LOT of other rock walls around here) where most people never get to go. I remember hiking up the mesa with my older brothers when we were all young. It was always so quiet... sometimes they would tell my sister and I stories about skinwalkers, etc... they scared the puddin? outta us!! I guess I learned most of what I know about them the way Janie learned Spanish.... osmosis! LOL They truly were a fascinating people.

Confession.... I could write a book on Kokopelli.... but I have to confess, I found the summary on the net. So much easier!

 

[fyrfytr]

Hey Rain,
Sounds like you would make an excellent tour guide at Mesa Verde.
Have A Great Day!

Dave
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