> According to this report the word “robot” first appeared in English in 1839. 1839! There are some appearances even before that: https://books.google.com/ngra

> According to this report the word “robot” first appeared in English in 1839. 1839! There are some appearances even before that: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?direct_url=t1%3B%2Crobot%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?direct_url=t1%3B%2Crob... But everything before 1920s seems to be a little more than just statistical/parsing error. > […] but rather to a system, a “central European system of serfdom, by which a tenant’s rent was paid in forced labour or service” Yeah, this is pretty much exactly what "robota" means in Czech. The most accurate English word i found for it is "socage": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socage