"automaton resembling a human being," 1837, in early use often in reference to automated chess players, from Modern Latin androides (itself attested as a Latin word in English from 1727), from Greek andro- "male" (see andro-) + -eides "form, shape" (see -oid). Greek androdes meant "like a man, manly;" compare also Greek andrias "image of a man, statue." Listed as "rare" in OED 1st edition (1879), popularized from c. 1951 by science fiction writers.
