A Star Wars Word for Wednesday: Droid

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May 4th marked Star Wars Day and to celebrate we chose Star Wars as this month’s Word for Wednesday theme.

The date of this commemorative celebration comes from the pun on the Star Wars catchphrase ‘May the Force be with you’. Though the first recorded use of ‘May the 4th be with you’ dates to 1979, the first organised commemorative event for Star Wars Day wasn’t until 2011 when an event was hosted at the Toronto Underground Cinema. Today, Star Wars Day is observed by fans all over the world. 

So far we’ve looked at the words force and Jedi. Our third word of the month is droid. 
 
In the Star Wars universe, a droid is a robot that possesses artificial intelligence. Droid characters include C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB-8.

Though the word became a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd in 1977, it had actually been appearing in science fiction stories since the 1950s.
 
It is a shortening of android: a robot with human-like features and abilities. The word android dates to 1837 and was originally used in reference to automated chess players. It comes from the Latin ‘androides’, from the Greek ‘androdes’ meaning ‘manlike’. Android was listed as ‘rare’ in the 1879 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary but was popularised again by 1950s science fiction. 


18 May 2022
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