Locator: 48720STARWARS.
Star Wars plays an important part in this story told by Walter Murch in Suddenly Something Clicked.
One of the key film editors on Star Wars was George Lucas' wife at the time, Marcia Lucas. Some time after the movie had been released, George Lucas, Marcia Lucas, and Walter Murch had dinner in Manhattan and talked about the huge unexpected success of the movie.
From Walter Murch's book, p. 19:
That evening, George, his wife Marcia, and I had dinner at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park. My one vivid memory from that meal was Marcia, in happy/sad/confused/anguished tears at the sudden relief from the crushing amount of work and the months -- years, really -- of uncertainty that had now led to this incredible success. 'What does it all mean? What does it mean?' she kept repeating. 'We were just making a film for kids!
That brought me to this. I was curious. Where did the term "droids" originate?
Where did the term "droids" originate? To what extent did the use of "droids" in "Star Wars" lead to "droids" becoming a most-used word in the English language?
This is worth the read: "droids" is trademarked and George Lucas owns the trademark, just as Disney still owns trademarks associated with Mickey Mouse.
From ChatGPT: not formatted, simply "cut and paste":
The term “droid” is a fascinating case of sci-fi linguistics crossing into mainstream English — and Star Wars was absolutely the catalyst.
๐ Origin of the Word “Droid”
-
The word “droid” is a shortened form of “android”, which itself comes from:
-
Greek แผฮฝฮฎฯ (andr-) = “man”
-
Suffix -oid = “resembling”
-
So “android” means “human-like” — originally used for human-looking robots or machines.
-
-
The first recorded use of the word “droid” was in 1952 by science fiction writer Mari Wolf, in her short story Robots of the World! Arise!, published in If: Worlds of Science Fiction:
“What kind of droid are you, anyway?”
-
However, it remained obscure until…
๐ Popularization by
Star Wars
(1977)
-
George Lucas made “droid” famous in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), using it as a universal shorthand for robot characters like R2-D2 and C-3PO.
-
The word was used so heavily in Star Wars that it became immediately associated with that universe.
-
Lucasfilm actually trademarked the term “droid” in 1977, and still owns the trademark (U.S. Reg. No. 1127229).
-
This is why, for example, the Android™ smartphone platform by Google had to license the term “Droid” for Motorola phones from Lucasfilm.
-
๐ Cultural Impact & Usage Growth
-
Post-Star Wars, “droid” exploded into pop culture, entering video games, comics, novels, toys, and tech marketing.
-
Despite being trademarked, the word began to appear generically in headlines, sci-fi works, tech blogs, and everyday conversation.
-
Examples:
-
“Killer droids” in AI ethics discussions
-
“Rescue droid,” “spy droid,” or “combat droid” in military robotics
-
“Droid” as branding: Motorola Droid, Droid Turbo, etc.
-
-
The word has become almost as recognizable as “robot”, especially in younger generations raised on Star Wars.
๐ Has “Droid” Become One of the Most-Used English Words?
Not exactly — while “droid” is highly recognizable, it’s not among the top 10,000 most frequently used English words in formal corpora like:
-
Oxford English Corpus
-
COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English)
-
Google Ngram Viewer
However, it’s extremely common in science fiction, pop culture, and tech branding — making it a high-frequency niche word. You could say it’s one of the most influential sci-fi words ever coined, even if not statistically “most used.”
✅ Summary
Origin: coined in 1952 by Mari Wolf as a shortened form of "android."
Popularized: Star Wars (1977), where George Lucas used it extensively.
Trademark: Lucasfilm trademarked "droid" in 1977
Cultural reach: became a sci-fi and tech staple; licensed by Motorola / Google
English usage: not a top 10,000 word, but very common in pop culture and tech speech.
