etymology

Latest

  • 'Robot' marks its 90th anniversary as a word

    by 
    Donald Melanson
    Donald Melanson
    01.25.2011

    It's not often we mark the anniversary of a single word around here, but this one's particularly close to our cold, electronic hearts -- it was ninety years ago today that the word "robot" was introduced to the public in Karel Capek's play "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots), which first premiered in Prague in its original Czech language in 1921, and came to New York a year later in English. As Gearlog notes, however, Capek actually gives credit for the origin of the word to his brother Josef, who suggested the term "roboti" that he derived from the Czech word "robota," which literally means "serf labor," and can refer to drudgery or hard work. Of course, robots themselves have evolved quite a bit over those ninety years, and -- given the pace of development as of late -- we're a bit hesitant to guess what things might be like when the 100th anniversary of the word comes around.

  • The Queue: Procs and more on Patch 3.1

    by 
    Alex Ziebart
    Alex Ziebart
    03.11.2009

    Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Good morning, ladies and gents! Or afternoon for some of you. Probably evening for a few others! It's morning for me, though. That's all that matters, isn't it? Indeed. Adam is out of the office today thanks to a blizzard murdering his internet connection, so I'll be covering for him even though today is technically his turn to do The Queue. Lazy such-and-such, letting weather get in his way. Grumble.Ian R. asked...Do you think the first couple of bosses in Ulduar can be PUG'd on easy mode? Like Sartharion and Vault of Archavon?