Robot, South African usage – Words & Stuff

Robot, South African usage

-Ed.

Filed under: Slang

In the near future, most of our jobs may be taken over by robots...

Note for our possibly confused international readers: In #SouthAfrica we commonly refer to traffic lights as 'robots.'#futureofwork #technology #futuretech #Robots #ArtificialIntelligence pic.twitter.com/TnfIUbX6uf
— Madam & Eve (@madamevecartoon) March 9, 2019

Passing this along—the usage is so implausible to me that I am surprised again every time I happen on it.

Thanks,
-Ed.

One Response to “Robot, South African usage”

Jacob

03-11-2019 10:11 AM

According to this (https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2017/07/24/the-real-reason-south-africans-call-traffic-lights-robots/) they were originally called “robot policemen”, which was truncated to “robot”. That seems plausible — I know that some refer to speed bumps as “sleeping policemen”.
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