Droid (Star Wars)
In the Star Wars space opera franchise, a droid is a fictional robot possessing some degree of artificial intelligence. The term is a clipped form of "android", a word originally reserved for robots designed to look and act like a human. The word "android" itself stems from the New Latin word "androīdēs", meaning "manlike", itself from the Ancient Greek ἀνδρος (andrós) (genitive of ἀνήρ (anḗr), "man (adult male)" or "human being") + -ειδής (-eidḗs), itself from εἶδος (eîdos, "form, image, shape, appearance, look"). Writer and director George Lucas first used the term "droid" in the second draft script of Star Wars, completed 28 January 1975. However, the word does have a precedent: science fiction writer Mari Wolf used the word in her story "Robots of the World! Arise!" in 1952. It's not known if Lucas knew of this reference when he wrote Star Wars, or if he came up with the term independently. The word "droid" has been a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd since 1977. Droids are performed using a variety of methods, including robotics, actors inside costumes (in one case, on stilts), and computer animation. Lucasfilm registered "droid" as a trademark in 1977. The term "Droid" has been used by Verizon Wireless under licence from Lucasfilm, for their line of smartphones based on the Android operating system. Motorola's late-2009 Google Android-based cell phone is called the Droid. This line of phone has been expanded to include other Android-based phones released under Verizon, including the HTC Droid Eris, the HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid 2, and Motorola Droid Pro. The term was also used for the Lucasfilm projects EditDroid, a non-linear editing system, and SoundDroid, an early digital audio workstation. The name "Omnidroid" was used with permission of Lucasfilm for the 2004 Pixar movie, The Incredibles, referring to a line of lethal robots built by the film's antagonist. The franchise, which began with the 1977 film Star Wars, features a variety of droids designed to perform specific functions.