I've always thought that the word "Robot" comes from Slovak "robota" (regular work, commonly used) instead of Czech word "robota" (forced labor, rarely used). I

I've always thought that the word "Robot" comes from Slovak "robota" (regular work, commonly used) instead of Czech word "robota" (forced labor, rarely used). It was explained to me by people from former Czechoslovakia that Karel had his brother Josef recovering from an illness in Tatra region of Slovakia in 1919 where people used the word all the time; Josef then suggested Karel to rename his originally intended "Laboři" (laborers) as "Roboti" (robots). BTW, they both were devastated by Munich Agreement 1938 and Josef later died in a concentration camp, so one could wonder what could have been... Moreover, Rossum from R.U.R. is a word play on "rozum", which is a Czech/Slovak word for mind/brain. Mind's Universal Robots ;-)