bot n.
a robot
The more recent sense ‘an automated computer program, esp. one running on a network’ is not generally an SF use.
Robotics
-
1969 We All Died at Breakaway Station in Amazing Stories Jan. 130/2
page image
Richard C. Meredith
bibliography
When they got my ship the only part of me that the 'bots were able to get into cold-sleep was my head, shoulders and a part of my spine.
-
1977 Homemaker in Cosmos Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine May 25/1
page image
Gregory Benford
bibliography
‘What’s your name, little bot?’ The robot squats mutely. ‘Bot?’ Gerald asks. ‘Slang for robot. You ask him.’
-
1982 Sten (1990) 79
Allan Cole
Chris Bunch
bibliography
The warehouse…was a place that a human—on legal business—never had to visit as all functions and work were handled by bots, from tiny inventory clerks to giant, idiot-brained skip-loaders.
-
1984 Practice Effect .i.23
David Brin
bibliography
Compared with some of the sophisticated machines Dennis had worked with, the exploration 'bot wasn’t very bright.
-
1992 Steel Beach 394
page image
John Varley
bibliography
A few months back, I woke up and my mouth tasted like peppermint. I looked into it, turns out it’s a new sort of ’bot.
-
1994 Ring (1996) . 213
Stephen Baxter
bibliography
The craft from within the ice, dug up and splayed out against the surface by a team of autonomous 'bots, was like a bird, with night-dark wings a hundred yards long trailing back from a small central body.
-
1996 Mystery Sci. Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide 12/2
The 'Bots try to figure out the movie. Joel explains that it’s enough that it got made at all. The Robots come up with a movie plot about a guy on a desert island with his two robots.
-
1997 Delta Search (1997) 330
William Shatner
bibliography
He peered over and watched, waited until she was leaping over a ruined pile of laser-bots, just where the controls for the next blast door ought to be. He squeezed the small detonator in his hands… The explosion cleared the rest of the bots and jammed the blast door open permanently.
-
1998 Heaven's Reach 303
David Brin
bibliography
A formation of cop-bots swept eastwards at top speed, rushing around the next corner toward some noisy emergency.
-
2004 Pandora's Star vii. 166
Peter F. Hamilton
bibliography
Oscar Monroe had been on site for ten months, managing the crews as they crawled around the wormhole generator armed with screwdrivers, arrays, programs, and every conceivable type of bot.
-
2024 Ganny Goes to War in Analog Science Fiction & Fact Mar.–Apr. 167/1
David Gerrold
bibliography
We pulled one of the lesser construction bots from the junkyard…. It was an old one, slow and kinda stupid, so we’d never had much use for it—we wouldn’t grieve if it became abruptly disassembled.
Research requirements
antedating 1969
Earliest cite
in Richard Meredith's "We All Died at Breakaway Station"
Research History
Malcom Farmer submitted a cite from a 1988 reprint of Gregory Benford's story "Snatching the Bot"; Rick Hauptmann verified this in the 1986 first edition. Malcolm Farmer subsequently verified the cite in the original 1977 magazine version.Enoch Forrester submitted a 1996 cite from the MST3K "Amazing Colossal Episode Guide".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1983 cite from David Brin's "Startide Rising".
Douglas Winston submitted a 1997 cite from William Shatner's "Delta Search Quest For Tomorrow".
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from a reprint of Richard Meredith's "We All Died At Breakaway Station"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1969 first magazine appearance.
Douglas Winston submitted a cite from a 1990 reprint of Allan Cole and Chris Bunch's 1982 "Sten".
This sense for "bot" added to the OED in September 2003, with an earliest cite of 1969.
Last modified 2024-12-17 02:20:06
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.