different between auton vs automaton

English

Etymology

Coined by Robert Holmes in 1969, from a contraction of automaton.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???.t?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??.t?n/, /??.t?n/

Noun

auton (plural autons)

1. (science fiction) A machine or robot, usually in the form of a living being, designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
   • 1974, Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, page 55

     Not far away in the woods the Auton had been standing motionless under a tree. It was shaped like a man but it was not human.

   • 1986, Vernor Vinge, Marooned in Realtime

     Juan made seven attempts to pervert the auton. One involved twelve hundred years of careful observation, timing the failure of various subsystems, maneuvering the auton into a position where he might take control and get transportation to resources in near space..

   • 2002, Sean McMullen, Voyage of the Shadowmoon, page 461

     "The Metrologan Order built the auton that was Ninth. How can you be so sure that she was not so well crafted that she really did have her own will?"

Related terms

• automat
• automatic
• automatization
• automatize
• automation
• automaton

Translations

Anagrams

• tauon

Finnish

Noun

auton

1. Genitive singular form of auto.

Anagrams

• Tauno, ontua, tauon, tuona

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin autumnus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [aw?tu]

Noun

auton m (plural autons)

1. autumn

See also

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ????????? (autómaton), neuter of ????????? (autómatos, “self moving, self willed”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ô-t?m'?-t?n, ô-t?m'?-t?n, IPA^(key): /???t?m?t?n/, /???t?m??t?n/
• IPA^(key): /??t?m??t?n/

Noun

automaton (plural automatons or automata)

1. A machine or robot designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 9,

     Nick had heard her play through the very beginning of it a dozen times, until he was screaming at her in his head to go on. Well, now she did, watching her own hands busying up and down the keyboard as if they were astonishing automata that she had wound up and set in motion, in perfect synchrony, to produce this silvery flow of sound.

2. A person who acts like a machine or robot, often defined as having a monotonous lifestyle and lacking in emotion.

   Due to her strict adherence to her daily schedule, Jessica was becoming more and more convinced that she was an automaton.

   • July 12, 1816, Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Kercheval Monticello

     A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third, and so on 'til the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering.

3. A formal system, such as a finite-state machine or cellular automaton.
4. A toy in the form of a mechanical figure.
5. (dated) The self-acting power of the muscular and nervous systems, by which movement is effected without intelligent determination.

Hyponyms

• robot

Derived terms

• auton
• cellular automaton

Related terms

Translations

Latin

Alternative forms

• automatum

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ????????? (autómaton), neuter of ????????? (autómatos, “self-moving, self-willed”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /au??to.ma.ton/, [äu??t??mät??n]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /au??to.ma.ton/, [?u??t???m?t??n]

Noun

automaton n (genitive automat?); second declension

1. automaton
2. contraption
3. device

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type).

References

• aut?m?tus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• automaton in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette