robot
In South Africa, a robot is a traffic light. “Turn left at the second robot” is perfectly normal directions.
What robot means in South Africa
Ask for directions in Johannesburg or Cape Town and you’ll hear about robots: “go straight through two robots, then turn right.” Nobody is talking about machines. Wikipedia lists robot (traffic light) among the distinctive words of South African English.
Examples
- “Turn left at the robot by the garage.”
- “The robots are out because of load-shedding, so drive carefully.”
- “I got stuck at every single robot on the way here.”
Where it came from
Wiktionary says it comes from the earlier phrase “robot policeman,” used for automatic traffic signals in the 20th century. The general word robot comes from Czech robota, drudgery, and was coined by writer Karel Čapek in his 1920 play R.U.R.
Related terms
- Bakkie: a pickup truck.
- Servo: an Aussie petrol station.
- Howzit: hello.
- Eish: when the robot’s broken.
More South African words are in our South African slang guide.
Example sentence
Turn right at the next robot and you’ll see the shop.
Similar words
traffic light
Notes
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