The word “robot” was coined for Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. from Czech.
Čapek’s play introduced artificial workers called robots, but the term is generally credited to his brother, Josef Čapek, who suggested it. It comes from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labor, compulsory service, or drudgery.
R.U.R. stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots and premiered in Hradec Králové in 1921 after its Prague production. The play helped spread the new word internationally, although its robots were biological artificial workers rather than mechanical machines.
A common mix-up is assuming “robot” is originally Slovak because Čapek was born in what is now the Czech Republic and wrote in Czech. Czech and Slovak are closely related West Slavic languages, but the source term is specifically Czech.