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START / NODE 113Present-Day English1922–today
robot
A programmable or autonomous machine, named in English through Karel Čapek's R.U.R. from Czech robota, compulsory labor.
“Robot did not originally name metal machinery. Josef Čapek proposed a word built from forced labor for artificial workers—and its remote family reaches toward slavery, bereavement, and changed social status.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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00Present-Day English · attestedrobot
an artificial worker; later an automatic or programmable machine
01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishrobot
an artificial worker; later an automatic or programmable machine
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Czech · Czech historical vocabularyrobotacompulsory labor, corvée, drudgery
- SOUND CHANGE
- Josef Čapek suggested robot from Czech robota; English received the coined form through Karel Čapek's R.U.R. and its translation.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- Compulsory human labor was reassigned to artificial workers, then generalized to automatic machines.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established
- CHRONOLOGY
- R.U.R. appeared in 1920; English first known use is 1922.
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