I found some interesting articles on the 'Net about the origins of
the word "robot".  In the document "History of Robotics" found at
http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEcourses/engn4627/Lec/engn4627lec01.pdf :

  1922 "Rossum's Universal Robots" [a play by] Karel Capek.

  A bioprocess created human-like machines, called Rabota (a serf or
  "one in subservient labour" in Czech), devoid of emotions and souls,
  who were strong, obeyed their masters, and could be produced quickly
  and cheaply.  The market grew tremendously as all major countries
  equipped their armies with slave robotic soldiers.  Eventually, the
  robotics decided they were superior to humans and tried to take over
  the world.

At http://www.iclve.com/frenchclve/sabircyber/robot.htm an unidentified
French writer (while complaining about the connotations of slavery)
says:

  The first use of the word robot to designate a machine goes back to
  the Czech author Karel Capek who, in 1920, wrote "RUR", a theater
  piece that evoked a business [named] the RUR that manufactured
  automatons capable to replace workers.  This [Slavic] word ...
  could be one of symbols of the twentieth century.  Heir to a double
  tradition, ... the robot was first a mixture of nightmare (in RUR,
  they rebel) and of hope (to abolish the tyranny of the assembly-line
  work).  This contradiction was gotten 'round, but not obsoleted, with
  the invention of the computer (1946).

Un-huh; do you ever feel you're a slave to the computer?!

Robbie Rhodes