Etymograph

English

soft robot

From soft + robot.

A compound of soft + robot

Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) ‘level’

Old English sōfte

Middle English softe ‘soft’

English soft

Proto-Slavic *orbota ‘work’

Old Czech robota

Czech robota ‘drudgery, servitude’

Czech robot

English robot

Today it means

noun A robot that is physically compliant and deformable and typically employs biomimicry

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “soft robot”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / soft robot