[ad. Skr. avatāra descent, f. ava down + t’r-, tar-, to pass over.]
1. Hindoo Myth. The descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form.
1784. Sir W. Jones, in Asiat. Res., I. 234. The ten Avatárs or descents of the deity, in his capacity of Preserver.
1858. Beveridge, Hist. India, II. IV. ii. 28. The fifth avatar, called Varuna, because in it Vishnu assumed the form of a dwarf.
2. Manifestation in human form; incarnation.
1815. Scott, Paul’s Lett. (1839), 325. A third avatar of this singular emanation of the Evil Principle [Bonaparte].
1878. R. Sayler, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 94. McClellan was … the very god of war, in his latest avatar.
3. Manifestation or presentation to the world as a ruling power or object of worship.
1859. Masson, Milton, I. 226. The avatar of Mathematics had not begun. Ibid., 447. Glad that the avatar of Donne, as an intermediate power between Spenser and Milton, was so brief and partial.
1883. Harper’s Mag., March, 541/1. The Baireuth festivals … the completest and most characteristic avatars of art our century can shew.
4. loosely, Manifestation; display; phase.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiog., ii. (1860), 36. She ended with enjoying, and even abetting, this new avatar of the Church militant.
1880. L. Stephen, Pope, ii. 29. Wit and sense are but different avatars of the same spirit.
