avatar
An avatar is, in Hinduism, the incarnation of a deity on earth. The word is Sanskrit-based, and means "descent." Krishna, the superstar of the Hindu pantheon, is the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu. Rama is the seventh.
More generally the word can be used to mean simply that someone is an embodiment of something, an avatar of learning, for instance, or of generosity.
In computer gaming, the avatar is a graphic identity a player assumes in a virtual world. (As if we, entering cyberspace, are deities "descending" to a simpler plane.)