robotrix n.

a robot assigned a female identity; a robot having female or feminine characteristics

Often with reference to the Maschinenmensch, a robot based on Maria, in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927).

Robotics

  • 1933 F. J. Ackerman The Scientifilms in Science Fiction Digest (#7) Mar. 16/1 page image Forrest J. Ackerman bibliography

    For this, he created a robotrix, a mechanical woman, and, by kidnapping Mary, and with the use of amazing machinery, made of the steel girl a perfect double for the maid of the lower levels.

  • 1974 P. K. Dick Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1975) xxvii. 198 page image Philip K. Dick bibliography

    Evidently he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.

  • 1988 M. J. Costello Classics of the Silent Era in Amazing Stories Jan. 47/1 page image

    The images [in the movie Metropolis]—the robotrix created by a prototypical mad scientist, gigantic machines being operated…—are genuinely impressive.

  • 1991 K. Newman Übermensch! in Year’s Best Science Fiction 9 (1992) 204 page image Kim Newman bibliography

    The robotrix on traffic duty outside the aeroport had been limping, dysfunctional, sparks pouring from her burnished copper thigh.

  • 2016 N.Y. Times 12 June (T: Style Magazine section) 28/2

    Consider Maria, the fetching Maschinenmensch (man-machine) from Fritz Lang's 1927 classic ‘Metropolis,’ reputed to be the first fembot…. (The somewhat more clinical term, gynoid, was coined by Gwyneth Jones to describe the alluring Chinese robot slave in her 1984 novel ‘Divine Endurance.’) Those gleaming heroines are but few in a centuries-long line of sexy robotrix spanning countless Japanese animés, as well as Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten’s Galaxina, the suburbandroid Stepford Wives, T-X (aka the Terminatrix), Hajime Sorayama’s chromed pin-ups, [etc.].

  • 2018 The Onion 18 Jan. (headline) page image

    Tearful Elon Musk Warns About Dangers Of AI After Having Heart Broken By Beautiful Robotrix.

Research requirements

antedating 1933

Last modified 2021-05-18 13:49:01
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.