robot English · revision 139
5 Oct 2026, 22:03 by bogdan “Add pronunciation, sense history, timeline, meanings, word family, related words” current version
Changes in this edit
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+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA: /ˈɹəʊ.bɒt/, /ˈɹəʊ.bət/ ''(UK)''; /ˈɹoʊ.bɑt/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)
+
==Etymology==
First recorded in English in 1923,^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989) from the English translation of Karel Čapek's 1920 play ''R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal Robots'').^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) It is [[bor|cs|robot]], [[der|cs|robota|t=forced labour, drudgery]].^(OED 1989)^(AHD) According to Etymonline, citing Rawson, the word was coined by Karel's brother Josef Čapek.^(Etymonline)
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The Czech word is akin to [[goh|arabeit|t=trouble]] (modern German ''Arbeit'' “work”)^(MW Collegiate)^(Etymonline) and [[la|orbus|t=orphaned]].^(MW Collegiate)
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ One of the artificial workers in Čapek's play, hence a machine resembling a human being;^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) and, in the same year, a person whose work is entirely mechanical.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ Before Čapek, English already used ''robot'' for a system of serfdom in Central Europe, in which a tenant's rent was paid in forced labour.^(Wiktionary) The meaning widened from humanlike machines to any device that performs complex tasks automatically,^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary) and in South Africa to an automatic traffic signal (1931).^(OED 1989)^(Wiktionary) In computing a ''robot'' or ''bot'' is software that performs tasks automatically.^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 19th century – a system of forced labour in Central Europe.^(Wiktionary)
+ * 1920 – Čapek's play ''R.U.R.''^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)
+ * 1923 – first recorded in English.^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)
+ * 1931 – in South Africa, “automatic traffic signal”.^(OED 1989)
+ * 1944 – short for ''robot bomb'', for a time.^(OED 1989)
+
+ ==Modern meaning==
+ ===Noun===
+ # A machine that performs complex tasks automatically, sometimes resembling a human.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # A person who acts mechanically, without original thought or feeling.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # ''(South Africa)'' A traffic light.^(OED 1989)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[robotic]]
+ * [[robotism]]
+ * [[robotlike]]
+ * [[bot]]
+ * [[roboticist]]
+ * [[robotics]]
+ * [[robotization]]
+ * [[robotize]]
+
==References==
{{reflist}}