cyborg

Etymology

It is a blend from English cybernetic + organism, joining the beginnings of both.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The Oxford Dictionary of English takes the first part as cyber-.^[8] According to Etymonline, the word was coined by Manfred E. Clynes with Nathan S. Kline in a paper, “Drugs, Space and Cybernetics”, given at a symposium on the psychophysiological aspects of space flight in San Antonio, Texas, in May 1960.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limits by a machine or other outside agency that modifies the body's functioning: 1960, in the New York Times of 22 May.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline, Clynes and Kline meant the term for a self-regulating system of man and machine that would let humans survive in other environments, such as other planets, and their plan relied largely on chemicals and osmotic pumps.^[3] By 1965 the media and popular books described a cyborg as "half man, half machine",^[3] and Collins defines the word as a being of science fiction whose powers are enhanced by computer implants or mechanical body parts.^[9] Merriam-Webster defines it simply as a bionic human.^[4]

Timeline

• 1960 – a person whose physical capabilities are extended by a machine.^[2][4][3]
• 1965 – described in popular use as half man, half machine.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or other living being whose bodily functions or abilities are extended or partly taken over by mechanical or electronic devices; a bionic human.^[4][2][7]
2. (in science fiction) A being whose powers are enhanced by computer implants or mechanical body parts.^[9]

Related words

• cybernetic
• cybernetics
• organism

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins