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The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

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Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#61

Post by jefftk »

lupire wrote: post #34
pawelwentpawel wrote: post #17

When asking Google - what the etymology of the "robot" word is, the answer is from Czech word "robota" which is they translate as "forced labor". While I don't speak Czech, I speak Polish which is a close cousin. For years it didn't occur to me that "robot" and the shortened "bot" words have slavic etymology. In Polish "robić" means to do (carry out, perform etc.) something. "Robię kawę" means "I'm making a coffee" a…

Speaking of Slavic etymology and robota, "slave" is derived from "Slav".

slave (n.) c. 1300, sclave, esclave, "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/slave

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#62

Post by thinkertraveler »

jefftk wrote: post #61
lupire wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of Slavic etymology and robota, "slave" is derived from "Slav".

slave (n.) c. 1300, sclave, esclave, "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples. https://www.etymonline.com/word/slave

[flagged]

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#63

Post by csours »

robertlagrant wrote: post #37
Almondsetat wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"robot" man self defends

Defensive "robot" coiner.

Coin Operated Boy: A Man, Da.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAnyYTjjhJ0 (Dresden Dolls singer is Amanda Palmer - A Man, Da)

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#64

Post by jhbadger »

marcosdumay wrote: post #50
JKCalhoun wrote: post #19

His robot was hijacked to mean a mechanical man with gears and wires inside and he objected to that. I'm thinking of course that the public only had experience with these things — or perhaps this was another fear of the time, the mechanization of jobs, and so the robot became the perfect avatar for this fear and so evolved. But surely the idea of a mechanical man predates the term, robot. Automatons? Or is the distin…

The word "automaton" was coined to emphasize that the thing was inflexible. The word "robot" was coined to emphasize that it labored. I don't think those were equivalent at first.

Yeah, most automatons were just novelities -- dolls that played music or drew a picture (just according to their mechanical "programming") rather than something that actually did useful work, let alone flexible work.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#65

Post by droopyEyelids »

thinkertraveler wrote: post #62
jefftk wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

slave (n.) c. 1300, sclave, esclave, "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples. https://www.etymonline.com/word/slave

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I wonder if the use of 'ottoman' as 'footrest' in English has a similar origin story.

Showing the soles of your feet to someone is extremely disrespectful in many middle eastern cultures including the Ottoman culture.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#67

Post by jhbadger »

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #49

It’s interesting that Philip K. Dick’s androids from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the Replicants from the Blade Runner are way closer to Čapek’s robots than to mechanical humanlike contraptions. All three raise the same question — what is humanity, when you really get down to it?

And the (non-Dick) movie sequel 2049 makes it even closer given how it is revealed that (some) replicants, just like some of Čapek’s robots, can become pregnant and give birth just like humans, allowing them to continue without humans manufacturing them.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#68

Post by thinkertraveler »

lupire wrote: post #34
pawelwentpawel wrote: post #17

When asking Google - what the etymology of the "robot" word is, the answer is from Czech word "robota" which is they translate as "forced labor". While I don't speak Czech, I speak Polish which is a close cousin. For years it didn't occur to me that "robot" and the shortened "bot" words have slavic etymology. In Polish "robić" means to do (carry out, perform etc.) something. "Robię kawę" means "I'm making a coffee" a…

Speaking of Slavic etymology and robota, "slave" is derived from "Slav".

[flagged]

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#69

Post by _a_a_a_ »

rebolek wrote: post #59
petr25102018 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the region where I was growing up next to Poland, we say "chodit do roboty" when describing normal work.

I don't doubt that, you're probably from somewhere around Ostrava. There are of course regional differences. I'm from Brno and instead of "jít do práce" we usually used "jít do hokny", "jít do háčku", or just "jít makat". Whenever I hear word "robota", I connect it with my grand-grand-...-father who was forced to work ("robota") by "dráb" (overseer) and didn't like it. So he cut overseer's head with his scythe, becam…

> So he cut overseer's head with his scythe, became a village hero and founded a church there

do go on, sounds like quite a story in there.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#70

Post by pauke »

bee_rider wrote: post #58
pauke wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, in Czech the meaning really is more specific and forced labor is not an overly bad translation, it's work done by serfs in medieval times. It can be used to describe any work as heavy, but that's either in joke, or when used by people geographically close to Poland (typically referring to mining).

Is there some historical reason for this? I vaguely remember that in English, we have words like “cattle,” French etymology, and “cow” Germanic, and the speculation is that it is because the aristocracy were French for much of England’s history (so, the French word is used to refer to cows as a sort of abstract resource to be considered in bulk).

I believe it's a similar thing. Semi-educated guess based on historical facts: Because of various (not least religious) reasons, Czech-speaking intelligentsia pretty much ceased to exist mid-17th century (fact, replaced by German/Latin) and only actual serfs spoke Czech, work and robota became defacto synonym (speculation). And when it became fashionable and cool to speak Czech 100-200 years later for the city-dwellers (fact), they probably felt the need to differentiate whatever they were doing as a job from the definitely uncool farmers of the countryside (speculation).
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