A detailed look at how the modern word robot emerged.
Origin
The word robot comes from the Czech noun robota, meaning “forced labor,” “drudgery,” or “serf labor.” In medieval Central Europe, robota referred to the unpaid, obligatory work peasants performed for landowners.
First Use
The term was first introduced in 1921 in the play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. The play portrayed artificial human-like workers created to serve humans. These “robots” were biological constructs rather than mechanical devices — closer to today’s concept of androids than factory machines.
Karel Čapek credited his brother, Josef Čapek, with suggesting the word. Karel had considered other names (such as a Latin-derived labori), but Josef proposed roboti, which sounded more natural and carried a harsher connotation in Czech.
Spread of the Term
After the premiere in Prague, R.U.R. quickly became popular across Europe and the United States. The word robot entered English and other languages and soon became the standard term for artificial workers or automatons.
Evolution of Meaning
- 1920s: The word referred to artificial biological workers (not machines).
- Mid-20th century: With the rise of industrial automation, "robot" shifted to mean mechanical machines that replace human labor.
- Today: "Robot" covers a wide range of entities — from factory arms and humanoid androids to software bots and AI-driven systems.
Fun Facts
- In R.U.R., the robots eventually rebel against their human creators — an early and influential instance of the "robot uprising" trope in science fiction.
- Because robota literally means "drudgery" or "forced labor," the original sense of the word carried connotations of oppression and lack of freedom — quite different from many modern high-tech associations.
- Related words in Slavic languages preserve the older meaning: for example, Russian работа (rabota) means "work" or "job."