avatar

1. chat, virtual reality An image representing a user in a

multi-user virtual reality (or VR-like, in the case of

Palace) space.

2. (CMU, Tektronix) root, superuser. There are quite a

few Unix computers on which the name of the superuser

account is "avatar" rather than "root". This quirk was

originated by a CMU hacker who disliked the term

"superuser", and was propagated through an ex-CMU hacker at

Tektronix.

[Jargon File]

(1997-09-14)