Also 7–8 automatum. Pl. automata, -atons. [a. Gr. αὐτόματον, neut. of adj. αὐτόματος acting of itself, also adopted in L. as automaton, -atum. See also AUTOMA, AUTOMATE, AUTOME.]
1. lit. Something that has the power of spontaneous motion or self-movement.
a. 1625. Beaum. & Fl., Bloody Bro., IV. i. [It] doth move alone, A true automaton.
a. 1797. Burke, Ess. Drama, Wks. X. 153. The perfect Drama, an automaton supported and moved without any foreign help, was formed late and gradually.
Thus applied also to:
2. A living being viewed materially.
1645. Digby, Nat. Bodies, xxiii. (1658), 259. Because these parts [the mover and the moved] are parts of one whole; we call the intire thing automatum, or se movens, or a liveing creature.
1686. Boyle, Notion Nat., 305. These living Automata, Human bodies.
1713. Guardian (1756), II. 186. To be considered as Automata, made up of bones and muscles, nerves, arteries and animal spirits.
1880. Huxley, Cray-Fish, iii. 127. And such a self-adjusting machine, containing the immediate conditions of its actions within itself, is what is properly understood by an Automaton.
3. A piece of mechanism having its motive power so concealed that it appears to move spontaneously; ‘a machine that has within itself the power of motion under conditions fixed for it, but not by it’ (W. B. Carpenter). In 17–18th c. applied to clocks, watches, etc., and transf. to the Universe and World; now usually to figures which simulate the action of living beings, as clock-work mice, images which strike the hours on a clock, etc.
1611. Coryat, Crudities. The picture of a Gentlewoman whose eies were contrived … that they moved up and down of themselves … done by a vice which the Grecians call αὐτόματον.
1645. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 205. Another automaton strikes the quarters.
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., II. iii. 37. God will not let the great Automaton of the Universe be so imperfect.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Art, I. 284. Those automata … do by little interstices, or strokes, measure out long portions of time.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., v. 38. Automatons and mechanical toys moved by springs.
4. A living being whose actions are purely involuntary or mechanical.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. i. § 41. 50. Consequently that themselves were but machines and automata.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1777), 165. Nor can it well consist with his veracity to have stocked the earth with divers sets of automata.
1777. Priestley, Matt. & Spir. (1782), I. § 22. 283. Descartes … made the souls of brutes to be mere automata.
5. A human being acting mechanically or without active intelligence in a monotonous routine.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. ix. 200. The whole party [of slaves] was a set of scarcely animated automatons.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, IV. xi. 167. ‘Do you think so?’ said the Princess … ‘Have these automata, indeed, souls?’
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, v. 140. How could a Spartan, that automaton of the state … excel in any fine art.
6. Comb. and Attrib., as in automaton figure, lips, etc.; automaton-like a. and adv. resembling or like an automaton.
1770. T. Jefferson, Corr., Wks. 1859, I. 194. Your periagua … will meet us, automaton-like, of its own accord.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. ii. 149. Automaton figures made of wood.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxvi. 451. Her lips, with automaton-like movement, uttered the words.
