As the article states it's from the Czech word "robota". Clearly these are related but sometimes there are nuances between languages, even for very similar words.
I heard about this origin multiple times but never had it verified.
Maybe some native Czech speaker can enlighten us here :)
Native speaker here, you are absolutely right. Work in Czech would be "práce", "robota" means forced work. It is not used as much nowadays since we do not live in a feudal society anymore though :)
The root just means work or worker in Slavic languages. See also robotnik (worker) in Polish. But that wouldn’t make for a clickbait article title, now would it?
googling for "origin of word robot" says that it's from "robota" which means (allegetly) forced labour in Czech which agrees with the article which says the same: "forced labor, as done by serfs".
That is also closer to the meaning than just "labour" or "work" in my own eastern europen language.
The article specifically calls out Czech, not Slavic languages in general, as the root. According to Wiktionary, at least, robota does mean forced labor, so jumping to conclusions about clickbait titles might be a little premature.
It's not the worst outcome ... the human race becoming subjected to the robots could be considered worse (but then I guess we'd be talking about The Matrix instead).
Robota means different thing in czech than rabota in other slavic languages. Czech robota means corvee. There are different words for corvee in other slavic languages - "barshhina" (in russian), "panshhina" (in ukranian, polish and belarusian, spelled a bit differently in each), and rabota in them means any work, in czech work is called prace.
Edit:
This is a good example of "false friends of a translator" - words in different languages that sound similar but have different meanings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend
That said rabota and robota still have a common root which means slave in most slavic languages. So how is it the czech is such an outlier is a curiosity.
It might have to do with the Czech National Revival[1]. The Czech language and culture was being suppressed in favour of Austrian/Germanic one. Prominent Czech figures worked to preserve the Czech language which included distancing from German words and phrases, redefinition of words and even invention of new ones.
It was pretty much a success and we ended with what could be called Czech 2.0. How many false friends were introduced because of the Revival, I am not sure.
In this article [1] i see quite a lot of funny examples of false friends for czech to russian translation. Stale is cherstvyj in russian, but in czech cherstvyj is fresh. A corpse in russian is a torso in czech. Shame is attention. A cigarette butt is a cucumber. Toadstool is buckwheat. Looseness is speed. And so on. Some words like zivot in czech are closer to old russian meaning (life) than current (stomach). Between some i can see some other relation. And with some i have no idea how it could coincide that way.
It's funny to see how languages branch out and develop independently. I specifically remember that Czech "Šukat drogy na záchodě", which means "To fuck drugs on the toilet", would be "Look for medicine in the west" in Polish. I'm not 100 % sure that the Polish is right but it shows pretty well how large the overlap between Slavic languages there is. And also how many false friends we have.
Corvee is a great term to bring up here, because some of the comments below strike me as being along the lines of “but corvee means chore in French, how can it mean forced labor in English?”
I found a similar paradox, I'm not religious but I find the notion that humans have been created in God's image to have parallels in the way that we are currently pursuing AI.
The corollary to the is that we randomly evolved of billions of years and our thinking has become so complex that we believe that we can create something that is similarly complex is very fascinating. Fetish is definitely the right word.
The notion that the AI or robots would wake up and have selfish views similar to man's makes sense to us. I wonder how long it will be before the AI or robots is simulating its own creation in their own image...
So while I'll agree there are dangers, to play devil's advocate:
You ever see one of those crazy anime-inspired movies like Pacific Rim, with giant humanoid fighting robots? I was watching a video that discussed the practicality of this. On the surface they are completely ridiculous and ineffective. The video argued, however, that one reason an advanced society might create a machine like this is to reduce training costs. It takes knowledge and skill to do something like fly a plane or operate a tank. However every grunt soldier knows how to run, punch, and use a gun. If you can make giant robots with giant guns and a brain-computer interface, suddenly anyone can drive a superweapon.
The same kind of argument applies to AI and machines. We have massive amounts of knowledge and culture encoded in natural language, designed to be read and understood with human capabilities and logic. We have buildings, cars, appliances, machining tools, etc., all designed for human bodies. General AI that can think like a human (but faster) can quickly utilize all that knowledge, and humanoid robots (but stronger) can instantly utilize all that infrastructure. From that perspective it's an enormous value gain and not an unhealthy fetish.
I asked my father, a native Czech speaker to explain what Robata means. Pasting his reply below.
First, linguistically speaking: it's a Slavic language work, which broadly means "work". For example, the Russian word for "work" is "rabota". The Czech for work is "prace" but in slang usage one could say "robota" to signify hard work (e.g. "Musim do roboty"; "Ceka na me robota")
Historically: in the middle ages peasants had to spend a day each week working for the local lord on his field--this obligation was called "robota".
Karel Capek wrote a sci-fi play called R.U.R. where the word "robot" is used for the first time (it was suggested by Capek's brother Josef.)
R.U.R. stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots, a phrase that has been used as a subtitle in English). It premiered on 25 January 1921 and introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole. R.U.R. quickly became influential after its publication.
Original language: Czech
Date premiered: 25 January 1921
Written by: Karel Čapek
Genre: Science fiction
33 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 91.9 ms ] threadIf you prefer listening, it's also available in audio-book form - https://librivox.org/rur-rossums-universal-robots-by-karel-c....
EDIT: A nice synopsis is also available at Project Gutenberg - http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Rossum%27s_Universal_....
I could be wrong though, I only lived there for 11 years.
I heard about this origin multiple times but never had it verified.
Maybe some native Czech speaker can enlighten us here :)
That is also closer to the meaning than just "labour" or "work" in my own eastern europen language.
also it's not slave work, but serf work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs_(ethnonym)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean%E2%80%93Nogai_slave_ra...
not sure why the downvotes. I suppose some people believe that slavery existed only in USA, and consider it offensive to suggest otherwise.
TIL robotnik is more than a cool-sounding video-game character name.
Edit: This is a good example of "false friends of a translator" - words in different languages that sound similar but have different meanings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend
That said rabota and robota still have a common root which means slave in most slavic languages. So how is it the czech is such an outlier is a curiosity.
It was pretty much a success and we ended with what could be called Czech 2.0. How many false friends were introduced because of the Revival, I am not sure.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_National_Revival
1. https://zen.yandex.ru/media/solo/takoi-zabavnyi-cheshskii-ia...
When the machine wakes up and asks, "Hey, what's in it for me?"
From the POV of the robot, Asimov's Laws are the spec for the perfect slave. :(
I've come to the conclusion, reluctantly, that the desire to make robot servitors in our own image is an unhealthy fetish. YMMV
The corollary to the is that we randomly evolved of billions of years and our thinking has become so complex that we believe that we can create something that is similarly complex is very fascinating. Fetish is definitely the right word.
The notion that the AI or robots would wake up and have selfish views similar to man's makes sense to us. I wonder how long it will be before the AI or robots is simulating its own creation in their own image...
You ever see one of those crazy anime-inspired movies like Pacific Rim, with giant humanoid fighting robots? I was watching a video that discussed the practicality of this. On the surface they are completely ridiculous and ineffective. The video argued, however, that one reason an advanced society might create a machine like this is to reduce training costs. It takes knowledge and skill to do something like fly a plane or operate a tank. However every grunt soldier knows how to run, punch, and use a gun. If you can make giant robots with giant guns and a brain-computer interface, suddenly anyone can drive a superweapon.
The same kind of argument applies to AI and machines. We have massive amounts of knowledge and culture encoded in natural language, designed to be read and understood with human capabilities and logic. We have buildings, cars, appliances, machining tools, etc., all designed for human bodies. General AI that can think like a human (but faster) can quickly utilize all that knowledge, and humanoid robots (but stronger) can instantly utilize all that infrastructure. From that perspective it's an enormous value gain and not an unhealthy fetish.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/robota
I can also recommend reading the original play R.U.R., it’s quite short (and groundbreaking).
Unlike other parts, serfs in Eastern Europe were pretty much slaves.
No doubt there degrees of badness, but my impression is that the serf's life was never particularly enjoyable.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R. > "They are living creatures of artificial flesh and blood rather than machinery. "
First, linguistically speaking: it's a Slavic language work, which broadly means "work". For example, the Russian word for "work" is "rabota". The Czech for work is "prace" but in slang usage one could say "robota" to signify hard work (e.g. "Musim do roboty"; "Ceka na me robota")
Historically: in the middle ages peasants had to spend a day each week working for the local lord on his field--this obligation was called "robota".
Karel Capek wrote a sci-fi play called R.U.R. where the word "robot" is used for the first time (it was suggested by Capek's brother Josef.)
R.U.R. stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots, a phrase that has been used as a subtitle in English). It premiered on 25 January 1921 and introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole. R.U.R. quickly became influential after its publication. Original language: Czech Date premiered: 25 January 1921 Written by: Karel Čapek Genre: Science fiction
I've no idea how this started.