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]
