By 
Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
 | 
TED-Ed Original

Mysteries of vernacular: Robot

In 1920, Czech writer Karel Čapek wrote a play about human-like machines, thereby inventing the term robot from the Central European word for forced labor. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how the science fiction staple earned its name.

Related tags:

literature
robots
language
education
invention
ted-ed
animation
science fiction
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