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> Note that robot comes from a porting to English of the Russian verb "to work" Which is definitely not true. 'Robot' was first used by Czech writer Karel Čape
by PerfectDlite 10y ago
> Note that robot comes from a porting to English of the Russian verb "to work"
Which is definitely not true. 'Robot' was first used by Czech writer Karel Čapek and was invented by his brother, based on old-Czech 'robota' which translates as 'corvee'.
- patrickg_zill 10y agoIt is partially true, in that both Russian and Czech come from Old Church Slavonic, where it does come from the verb for "work". All three of the languages use the same root. I was mistaken in thinking that Russian was the origin of the word - I am not familiar with all the languages that descend from OCS. You are correct that it comes not via Russian but via Czech: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=robot http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=robot