Where does “avatar” come from?
avatar (Portuguese) comes from English alien, from Middle English alien, from Old French alien, from Latin aliēnus, from Latin alius, from Proto-Italic aljos, from Proto-Indo-European h₂élyos, from Proto-Indo-European h₂él- — to grow, nourish.
avatar (Portuguese): avatar
Definitions
- avatar
Ancestry of “avatar”, step by step
avatar traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English alien
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | alien | Any life form of extraterrestrial or... |
| 2 | Middle English | alien | An outsider or foreign person, especially one who... |
| 3 | Old French | alien | alien; foreign; non-native; alien |
| 4 | Latin | aliēnus | Of that which belongs to another person, place, or object—of another, alien, foreign |
| 5 | Latin | alius | other, another, any other; else; different |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | aljos | another |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂élyos | other, another |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂él- | to grow, nourish |
via French avatar
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | avatar | avatar |
| 2 | Hindustani | अवतार | — |
| 3 | Sanskrit | अवतार | avatar: descent (especially of a deity from heaven), appearance of any deity upon earth (but more particularly the incarnations of Vishnu in ten principal forms, namely Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rāma, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki) |
| 4 | Sanskrit | अव | off, away; down; this |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-Iranian | Háwa | away from, off; down |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂ew | away from, off; again |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵʰe | Postpositional intensifying particle: indeed, at any rate, in fact |