robot definition | Dictionary.com

ro⋅bot

[roh-buh

t, -bot]

–noun

1.	a machine that resembles a human and does mechanical, routine tasks on command.

2.	a person who acts and responds in a mechanical, routine manner, usually subject to another's will; automaton.

3.	any machine or mechanical device that operates automatically with humanlike skill.

–adjective

4.	operating automatically: a robot train operating between airline terminals.

Origin:
< Czech, coined by Karel Čapek in the play R.U.R. (1920) from the base robot-, as in robota compulsory labor, robotník peasant owing such labor

Related forms:

ro⋅bot⋅ism, noun

robotic, ro⋅bot⋅is⋅tic [roh-buh-tis-tik, -bo-]

, adjective

ro⋅bot⋅like, adjective

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automatic pilot

–noun

1.	Aeronautics. an airborne electronic control system that automatically maintains a preset heading and attitude. Also called automatic, autopilot, gyropilot, robot.

—Idiom

2.	on automatic pilot, functioning in an unthinking or reflexive manner.

Origin:
1915–20

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To robot

ro·bot (rō'bŏt', -bət)

A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance.
A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control.
A person who works mechanically without original thought, especially one who responds automatically to the commands of others.

[Czech, from robota, drudgery; see orbh- in Indo-European roots.]
ro·bot'ic adj.

Word History: Robot is a word that is both a coinage by an individual person and a borrowing. It has been in English since 1923 when the Czech writer Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. was translated into English and presented in London and New York. R.U.R., published in 1921, is an abbreviation of Rossum's Universal Robots; robot itself comes from Czech robota, "servitude, forced labor," from rab, "slave." The Slavic root behind robota is orb-, from the Indo-European root *orbh-, referring to separation from one's group or passing out of one sphere of ownership into another. This seems to be the sense that binds together its somewhat diverse group of derivatives, which includes Greek orphanos, "orphan," Latin orbus, "orphaned," and German Erbe, "inheritance," in addition to the Slavic word for slave mentioned above. Czech robota is also similar to another German derivative of this root, namely Arbeit, "work" (its Middle High German form arabeit is even more like the Czech word). Arbeit may be descended from a word that meant "slave labor," and later generalized to just "labor."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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robot

n. See bot.

Jargon File 4.2.0
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Language Translation for : robot

Spanish: robot,

German: der Roboter,

Japanese: ロボット

More Translations »

robot

1923, from Eng. translation of 1920 play "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots"), by Karel Capek (1890-1938), from Czech robotnik "slave," from robota "forced labor, drudgery," from robotiti "to work, drudge," from an Old Czech source akin to Old Church Slavonic rabota "servitude," from rabu "slave" (see orphan), from a Slavic stem related to Ger. Arbeit "work" (O.H.G. arabeit). According to Rawson the word was popularized by Karel Capek's play, "but was coined by his brother Josef (the two often collaborated), who used it initially in a short story." Robotics coined 1941 in a science fiction context by Isaac Asimov, who proposed the "Three Laws of Robotics" in 1968.

robot ro·bot (rō'bət, -bŏt')
n.

A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance.
A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control.
A person who works mechanically without original thought, especially one who responds automatically to the commands of others.

robot (rō'bŏt') Pronunciation Key
A machine designed to replace human beings in performing a variety of tasks, either on command or by being programmed in advance.

robot
1. A mechanical device for performing a task which might otherwise be done by a human, e.g. spraying paint on cars.
See also cybernetics.
2. An IRC or MUD user who is actually a program. On IRC, typically the robot provides some useful service. Examples are NickServ, which tries to prevent random users from adopting nicks already claimed by others, and MsgServ, which allows one to send asynchronous messages to be delivered when the recipient signs on. Also common are "annoybots", such as KissServ, which perform no useful function except to send cute messages to other people. Service robots are less common on MUDs; but some others, such as the "Julia" robot active in 1990--91, have been remarkably impressive Turing test experiments, able to pass as human for as long as ten or fifteen minutes of conversation.
3. spider.
[The Jargon File]
(1996-03-23)

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