Robot

Basically another name for what was formerly known as an automaton, referring to human-type mechanical beings.

See also Automata

Use in South Africa

The word Robot is used in the standard meaning, described above, to refer to human-type mechanical beings.

However, besides this standard meaning, the word Robot is also used to refer to traffic lights in South Arica. This occurred because just when traffic lights were being introduced into South Africa, the play R.U.R. was just being performed in the country, and people apparently latched onto the term to refer to them as "robot policemen", which then got truncated with time to become "robot". It is still in use in this sense today.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_African_English_regionalisms

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