Recent Examples on the WebThe novel invites anxiety and paranoia about who is human, even as the counterpoint melody suggests that androids do have dreams, and do feel love.—Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2024 The Euphoria star wore a robotic suit of armor that resembled the central android from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, C3PO from Star Wars, and Beyoncé’s futuristic aesthetic from her 2022 album Renaissance.—EW.com, 15 Feb. 2024 The tests affect the way humans, sensing the androids as a threat, interact not only with them but also with one another.—John Hopewell, Variety, 24 Jan. 2024 Heidi Gardner kills it as an android with a fantastic costume, too.—Andy Hoglund, EW.com, 15 Oct. 2023 The robots themselves are also interesting designs, ranging from faceless automatons to more humanoid androids with whirring gears in place of earlobes.—Christian Holub, EW.com, 27 Sep. 2023 Above all else, Berger’s film delights in the kind of eccentric, incidental sights and sounds from which dreams — human, animal or android — can spring.—Guy Lodge, Variety, 31 Dec. 2023 The idea of dreaming androids was both fanciful and logical.—Amanda Gefter, The New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2023 At the end of the episode, Picard and his compatriots activate this new android and get to speak to Data again for the first time in decades.—Adam B. Vary, Variety, 23 Mar. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'android.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
earlier androides "automaton having a human form," borrowed from French androïde, perhaps borrowed from Late Greek androeidḗs "in the form of a man, like a man," from Greek andr-, anḗr "man, husband, human" + -oeidēs-oid entry 2 — more at andro-
Note:
The word may equally well have been formed in post-medieval Latin, but evidence is lacking. An early English instance can be found in The History of Magick by way of Apology, for all the Wise Men who have unjustly been reputed Magicians (London, 1657), a translation, by "J. Davies," of Apologie pour tous les grands personnages qui ont esté faussement soupçonnez de magie (Paris, 1625) by the French librarian and scholar Gabriel Naudé (1600-53). The French word occurs earlier in Le mastigophore, ou precurseur du Zodiaque ([Paris]: 1609), a satirical work by the priest Antoine Fuzy/Fusi (1560-1629). Both authors use androïde in connection with the legendary talking automaton devised by albertus magnus, without any suggestion that the word was a neologism.
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