It's all Greek to me

Pretty much everyone who grew up during any of the Star Wars eras knows what a droid is.

Most of you reading this blog probably know that droid is short for android.

But how many of you know what android means?


(Warning! Warning! Intense amounts of pedantry and one terrible pun detected!)


Well, andro is Greek for "male" or "man", and oid is also Greek and means "having the likeness of". Thus, android is "one that has the likeness of a man."

That last bit is important: likeness of a man, not "likeness of man," with "man" being used in the admittedly chauvinistic sense of "all of humanity."

So technically, only male-looking robots should be called androids. Female-looking robots should be called gynoids, since gyno is the Greek term for "female."

So technically technically, you can't call, say, Cameron Phillips a droid, because that "d" is from andro. Instead, you should use the "n" from gyno and call her a noid.

*Rimshot*