robot

Coined by Czech writer Karel Čapek for his 1920 play R.U.R., from robota, a Czech and Slavic word for forced labor or drudgery.

The word entered English almost as soon as the play was translated and quickly outgrew the stage, moving from “artificial forced laborer” to any mechanical or programmable machine.

Robota is related to rab, an old Slavic word for slave. English has no native cognates for it, making robot one of the few everyday English words borrowed wholesale from Czech.