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Feb 11, 2014
This week's theme
Words coined in science fiction

This week's words
grok
waldo
tardis
triffid
frankenstein

waldo
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

waldo

PRONUNCIATION:
(WAL-doh)

MEANING:
noun: A device for manipulating objects by remote control, for example, a remotely-operated arm.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Waldo F. Jones, an inventor in a science-fiction story by Robert A. Heinlein. Earliest documented use: 1942.

NOTES:
Modern applications of waldo as a remote manipulator are in surgery, space, and in working in hazardous conditions, such as those involving radiation.

USAGE:
"I stuck my hand back into the waldo ... The remote arms peeled back the thin metal of the gondola."
Ben Bova; Venus; Tor; 2000.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. -Thomas Edison, inventor (1847-1931)

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