This is a popular misconception among speakers of other slavic languages, but the Czech word "robota" really does refer to forced work performed by feudal serfs: https://prirucka.ujc.cas.cz/?slovo=robota
Btw Rossum in “Rossum’s Universal Robots” means "Reason".
So I'm hard-wired to dislike "robota".
do go on, sounds like quite a story in there.
The typical and more genteel way to refer to work is “praca”. “Szukam pracę” is how you would typically say “I’m looking for work”, for example [0]; “ciężko pracuję” means “I work hard”. So while “robotnik” is better understood as specifically a manual laborer or someone of the working class, “pracownik” means something like “employee”.
[0] I am aware of the Czech false cognate “šukat” :).
I vaguely remember that in English, we have words like “cattle,” French etymology, and “cow” Germanic, and the speculation is that it is because the aristocracy were French for much of England’s history (so, the French word is used to refer to cows as a sort of abstract resource to be considered in bulk).
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/o...
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/o...
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Eur...
"Robotnik" means *manual* worker. E.g. someone fixing roads, or working in a factory.
"Pracownik" is a generic word for "employee". Can be an office worker or an manual worker.
"Robić" basically means "to do". While "pracować" means "to work". As you can notice one is more formal than another.
"Robota" is a less formal word, something closer to a "gig" (however it also means "work" or "job"). You will probably not find it in written texts. In writing "praca" (work) sounds more formal.
As a bonus, if you are a (manual) worker who complains and makes some not subtle digs about your job, you can say that you "have to go to your kołchoz tomorrow" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkhoz ). As the communist slogan said "work is your second home" after all :)
On a side note, do Czechs really like the polish word "pomidorek"? (Little tomato)
Slavic languages aren't the only ones with such a trajectory for the term - the German "Arbeit" is directly related and underwent a similar process.
Showing the soles of your feet to someone is extremely disrespectful in many middle eastern cultures including the Ottoman culture.
Nevertheless, I'm not sure if there is any reflection on the fact that mediterranean pirates (and nomadic tribes further east) plundered Balkans for captives and southwestern europeans then bought them. And that, perhaps, was a suboptimal way to behave.
As for why there's a "k" there - Greeks would naturally adapt any foreign word to the phonotactics of their language, which does not have "σλ" as a valid syllable onset, but does have "σκλ".
Sounds like there was to the Greeks:
Slav (n.) "one of the people who inhabit most of Eastern Europe," late 14c., Sclave, from Medieval Latin Sclavus (c. 800), from Byzantine Greek Sklabos (c. 580), from a shortening of Proto-Slavic sloveninu "a Slav"* -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/Slav
How is it not?
One of your other comments sounds like you agree with the etymology jefftk cited? But that says the exact same thing. The word slav was first, and the word slave was made from it.
Something being "propaganda" and "revenge" does not stop it from being the origin of a word.
Edit:
Oh, you elaborated slightly. > It's not derived, it's used - first by defeated.
That's what derived means. They took a word and used it to make a new word.
Man, I really should travel more around Europe. COVID ruined my last planned vacation and I've stayed at home since then.
In the last few years we’ve been to Prague, short stay in Vienna, Bratislava, Ohrid (spent a night in Pernik on the way there, which I count as part of the experience) and I’d also put Athens and Southern Greece/the Peloponnese on the list (even though it’s not Eastern nor Central European). All very interesting and beautiful places in their own way (yes, even Athens), I highly recommend them.
It's blowing my mind you willingly went to Pernik, though.
Arraignments would be far more nervewracking if they significantly involved spiders.
While I don't speak Czech, I speak Polish which is a close cousin. For years it didn't occur to me that "robot" and the shortened "bot" words have slavic etymology. In Polish "robić" means to do (carry out, perform etc.) something. "Robię kawę" means "I'm making a coffee" and "Zrób coś" (imperative mood - do something!) is a call for action to take action. It's a popular multi-use verb.
"Robota" is a job or some work that one has to do, not necessarily forced as Google suggests.
Edit: Also adding another interesting fact. Golem is an inanimate entity from Yiddish folklore, with a story strongly related to a 16th Prague Rabbi. I looked it up on Wikipedia if there was any connection with the "Robot" and indeed there seem to be some - "The play was written in Prague, and while Čapek denied that he modeled the robot after the golem, many similarities are seen in the plot." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem)