WHAT IS A ROBOT?

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 303, 29 August 1929, Page 2

WHAT IS A ROBOT?

I WORD OF SLAVIC ORIGIN. One of our correspondents in the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, .Canada, proposed a curious question which .concerned the derivation of the word “ robot,” says the Scientific ! American. We consulted all the dictionaries in our library, and prosecuted inquiries wherever we thought they might prove fruitful. We finally wrote to Mr R. J. Wensley, who is the creator of the Westinghouse electric robot. ( Mr Wensley wrote us as follows:—“I ?-> informed by a

! student on cur apj . entice course, who ! comes from Czecho-Slavakia, that the !' word is a Czechish word which, literally translated, means a very hard working man doing heavy manual i labour. The word came into use bei cause of its appearance in the Theatre , Guild p ay ‘ R.U.R.’ by the - Czechish 1 writer, Capek.” The above inforI mation, was relayed to our corresI pondent, who in turn, gave us some | additional information, of which the j following is an excerpt:—“ W.th refi erence to your reply, it quite disposes , of my previous idea that the world is of raodei'n and synthetic origin. I | would have answered you sooner, but j for the fact that, based on the start j you give me, I have been checking the matter through a l.ttle further | with the help of two or three men 1 in Government service here who are Jof S avic birth and educat'on. They | all confirm the information that you i obtained, the word or closely allied derivatives being found In both Polish I and Czech as meaning work, worker, or manual labour. In fact, it is also found in other than Slavic lanIguages, because a very old dictionary which we unearthed gives Robat, Roboth, Robold, Kobald, and Robe it as proper names, each and all meaning worker.”