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# The Theatrical Origins of the Word "Robot"
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/the-theatrical-origins-of-the-word-robot/
- Published: 2011-04-22T19:20:00.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T15:55:19.000Z
- Description: The man who invented the word robot almost named them “Labori” instead. Close call: As a word, robot is a relative newcomer to the English language. It was the brainchild of a brilliant Czech playwright, novelist and journalist named Karel ?apek (1880-1938) who introduced it in his 1920 hit play, R.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: News, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

![](http://killscreendaily.com/includes/img/focus-areas/robot_legos.jpg)

The man who invented the word robot almost named them “Labori” instead. Close call:

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> As a word, robot is a relative newcomer to the English language. It was the brainchild of a brilliant Czech playwright, novelist and journalist named Karel ?apek (1880-1938) who introduced it in his 1920 hit play, R.U.R., or Rossum’s Universal Robots.  
>  
> Robot is drawn from an old Church Slavonic word, robota, for “servitude,” “forced labor” or “drudgery.” The word, which also has cognates in German, Russian, Polish and Czech, was a product of the central European system of serfdom by which a tenant’s rent was paid for in forced labor or service.

  
[Science Daily has the rest of the tale](http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201104226?ref=killscreen.com) and saddening postscript involving the Nazis.

\[[img](http://www.flickr.com/photos/donsolo/?ref=killscreen.com)\]