avatar

n. [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.

