Born from a Czech word for feudal forced labor and coined in a dystopian play about exploited artificial workers, 'robot' entered Spanish as part of a global wave of borrowing that made it one of the 20th century's most universal words.
A machine capable of performing tasks autonomously or semi-autonomously, especially one programmed to carry out complex actions. Also used figuratively for a person who acts mechanically.
Spanish 'robot' is borrowed from Czech, coined by the writer Karel Čapek for his 1920 play 'R.U.R.' (Rossum's Universal Robots). Čapek credited his brother Josef with suggesting the word, which derives from Czech 'robota' (forced labor, drudgery), from Old Church Slavonic 'rabota' (servitude), ultimately from Proto-Slavic '*orbota' (hard work), connected to Proto-Indo-European '*h₃orbʰ-' (orphan, bereft, servant). The word spread rapidly through international press coverage of the
The word 'robot' was born carrying a critique of capitalism: in Čapek's play, robots are manufactured biological beings exploited as cheap labor who eventually revolt and destroy humanity. The Czech 'robota' specifically referred to the feudal corvée system — days of unpaid labor serfs owed to their lords — making 'robot' etymologically a word about slavery, not technology.