The word robot began with forced labour.

Before "robot" described a machine, the Czech word robota described forced labour. Karel Čapek used the related roboti for manufactured workers in his 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), which carried the word into English and science fiction. 12

Karel Čapek wrote the play, while his brother Josef is credited with suggesting the word. Tufts' archival center notes that Josef encouraged Karel to use it in place of an earlier draft term. 3 Today, robot usually means an automatically operated machine that replaces human effort. The old labour story is still inside the word. 1