The word robot was invented for a play in 1920, from a Czech word for forced labour.
Karel Capek's play R.U.R. featured artificial workers called roboti, from robota, meaning drudgery or serf labour. Capek credited his brother Josef with suggesting the word.
Why is this true?
The play was translated into dozens of languages within a few years and the word spread with it. The robots in R.U.R. were made of organic matter and eventually revolted, setting a template that science fiction has followed ever since.
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Language facts show how much of everyday speech is historical accident. Words that once meant the opposite, letters that vanished from the alphabet, punctuation with names almost nobody uses. Each entry explains the change that produced the oddity — a sound shift, a printing convention, a borrowing from another language — so it works as a genuine explanation and not just as a piece of trivia.