Waldo

(For other Waldos, see the Disambiguation page.)

A remote manipulator, also called a telefactor, and based on the concept of a pantograph.

The term comes from "Waldo," a novella by Robert A. Heinlein, originally published in Astounding in August 1942 under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald. (It was famously reprinted in the 1950 collection Waldo & Magic, Inc.) The word was widely adopted, not only in sf, but for the real thing, beginning in World War II; it got into mundane dictionaries.

• Entry at Technovelgy.

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Fanspeak

1942—

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.