The word 'robot' comes from a 1920 play, and originally meant forced labour

Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) introduced artificial workers called 'robots,' from the Czech word 'robota,' meaning drudgery or forced labour. Karel credited his brother Josef, a painter and writer, with actually coining the specific word during a conversation about what to call the machines.

— Karel Čapek, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) — 1920, premiered 1921