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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 6
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 6 |
I have wondered lately where the word "Automatic" originated. Automatic is as ubiquitous in meaning and use as any I can think of. I occurred to me that perhaps it came to be during the rise of the automobile.
Is this true? if not where else would it have been used?
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
1748, first used by Eng. physician and philosopher David Hartley (1705-57) in ref. to involuntary animal or human actions, from Gk. automatos "self-acting," from autos- "self" (comb. form) + matos "thinking, animated." Sense of "self-acting, having power of motion" is from 1812; especially of machinery which simulates human action from 1940. As an abbreviation of automatic pistol or gun, it is attested from 1902; meaning "car with an automatic transmission" is from 1949. Automatic teller first attested 1971. Automation was coined 1948 by Ford Motor Co. Vice President Delmar S. Harder; automate is a 1952 back-formation.
TEd
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