Investor’s Daily poll (20 July 2026)

Thank you — your vote has been counted.

Long before ChatGPT and Tesla Optimus, where did the word "robot" first come from?

An ancient Greek invention 186 votes (31.8%)
A 1920 stage play 153 votes (26.2%)
NASA engineers 111 votes (19.0%)
Isaac Asimov's novels 134 votes (22.9%)

Total votes: 584

Answer: A 1920 Czech play, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek. Interestingly, Čapek credited his brother Josef with suggesting the word. “Robot” comes from the Czech robota, meaning forced labour or drudgery.

Get ahead of the curve with Investor's Daily

Enter your email to access exclusive insights and stay informed with our Investor's Daily daily email.

Because Investor's Daily is completely free, we do have to fund it with advertising. Occasionally we will send you promotional emails, which will contain advertisements from us. By signing up to our free emails, you are consenting to receive these promotions. However we will never give, sell or rent your email address to any other companies. If you want to stop receiving our free emails at any time, you can immediately unsubscribe by clicking on the link in each email. For more information, please see our privacy policy.