avatar
     n 1: a new personification of a familiar idea; "the embodiment of
          hope"; "the incarnation of evil"; "the very avatar of
          cunning" [syn: {embodiment}, {incarnation}]
     2: the manifestation of a Hindu deity (especially Vishnu) in
        human or superhuman or animal form; "the Buddha is
        considered an avatar of the god Vishnu"
Source: WordNet® 2.0

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 {MUD}s. 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.


Source: The Jargon File

AVATAR
     Advanced Video Attribute Terminal Assembler and Recreator (BBS)
     
     
Source: Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms