The word “robot” entered English from Czech. It was introduced to the public in Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R., whose full title is Rossum’s Universal Robots.
In the play, robots are artificial workers manufactured from a chemical substitute for living tissue. The Czech word robota means forced labor, drudgery, or serf labor, making it an apt name for beings created to work. Čapek’s brother Josef, a painter and writer, is often credited with suggesting the term.
The play helped give “robot” its modern association with artificial workers, but Čapek’s robots are not mechanical machines in the contemporary sense. They are manufactured biological beings who eventually develop self-awareness and rebel against humanity.
A common mix-up is assuming the word came from Russian because Russian also uses a related Slavic root. The English term, however, was borrowed specifically through Czech literature and theatre.