android n.

a robot or other artificial being made to resemble a human, esp. one made of synthetic flesh or a fleshlike material (in contrast to metal, plastic, etc.)

Cf. the earlier use (mid-17th century), sometimes in the form androides, in reference to a talking automaton, esp. one said to have been created by the 13th-century philosopher Albertus Magnus.

[originally < French androïde (1609 or earlier; < ancient Greek ἀνδρο-, combining form referring to a man, + French ‑oïde ‘resembling’), partly after the similarly-formed post-classical Latin androides (1623 or earlier; plural androides)]

Robotics

  • 1936 J. Williamson Cometeers in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 146/2 page image Jack Williamson bibliography

    The traffic that brought him such enormous wealth was the production and sale of androids…. [He] had come upon the secret of synthetic life. He generated artificial cells, and propagated them in nutrient media, controlling development by radiological and biochemical means.

  • 1940 E. Hamilton Captain Future & Space Emperor in Captain Future Winter 17/2 Edmond Hamilton bibliography

    It was a manlike figure, but one whose body was rubbery, boneless-looking, blank-white in color…. Following this rubbery android, or synthetic man, came another figure, equally as strange—a great metal robot.

  • 1954 A. Bester Fondly Fahrenheit in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Aug. 6 page image Alfred Bester bibliography

    ‘I am not a machine,’ the android answered. ‘The robot is a machine. The android is a chemical creation of synthetic tissue.’

  • 1957 C. Oliver Didn’t He Ramble in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Apr. 125/1 page image Chad Oliver bibliography

    Robots, of course—or androids, to give them their proper names. Brilliant ones. You couldn’t tell the difference unless you looked too close.

  • 1968 S. E. Whitfield in S. E. Whitfield & G. Roddenberry Making of ‘Star Trek’ iv. v. 352 bibliography

    One episode in the first season called for a seven-foot-tall android.

  • 1970 A. McCaffrey Ship who Sang (1991) v.175 Anne McCaffrey bibliography

    He’s an android, complete with metal brainworks, programmed in a rarified atmosphere.

  • 1977 S. Marshak & M. Culbreath Price of Phoenix (1985) ii. 13 Sondra Marshak Myrna Culbreath bibliography

    I suppose there’s no mistake…Androids, doubles, imposters, illusions.

  • 1981 V. N. McIntyre Entropy Effect iii. 86 Vonda N. McIntyre bibliography

    An android duplicate. Clones. Clones, hell, maybe he had a twin brother.

  • 1983 R. Sheckley Dramocles (1984) 11 Robert Sheckley bibliography

    At last he came to a momentous decision and called for his psychiatric android.

  • 1992 P. David Imzadi i. 7 Peter David bibliography

    Standing outside the field, staring at the Guardian, was an android.

  • 1993 G. Bear Moving Mars 134 Greg Bear bibliography

    I was pretty sure he wasn’t an Earth-made android, but the suspicion never passed completely.

  • 1998 W. Shatner et al. Spectre ii. 22 bibliography

    When even an android reacted to his impatience, he knew he had gone too far.

  • 2020 E. Bear Machine iii. 34 Elizabeth Bear bibliography

    Then it spoke, in stilted but correct Standard, in a smoky contrived alto that made me flinch. ‘I am Helen,’ the android said. ‘The distress signal—yes. There is a distress signal. And there are casualties. Please, come with me.’

Research requirements

antedating 1936
Earliest cite

Jack Williamson, in Astounding
Research History
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2020 cite from Elizabeth Bear.

Last modified 2024-12-05 12:57:29
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.