Droids

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /dɹɔɪdz/

Definitions

1. Automated machines or robots designed to perform specific tasks, often seen in science fiction and popular media
2. Mechanical entities created to assist or perform functions usually in a futuristic context, frequently resembling humanoid forms
3. Artificial beings programmed for a variety of operations, commonly recognized in films, technology discussions, and entertainment industries

Etymology: The plural "droids" is the form of "droid," which began life as a clipping of "android," the term for a robot designed to look and act like a human being. The shortening is credited to the American science fiction writer Mari Wolf, born in 1926, who used the word in her 1952 story "Robots of the World! Arise!" It was an ordinary coinage with no grand ambition behind it, and it stayed obscure until the 1977 film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) made it famous. In the film, "droid" covered nearly every mechanical character, including ones that bore no resemblance to people at all, such as the cylindrical R2-D2. That is why the word now drifts beyond its origin: it names machines in general rather than humanlike ones, and the "-oid" ending that once marked likeness to a person has been dropped from its meaning.

Synonyms: robots, androids, automata