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An android is a robot[1] or synthetic organism[2] designed to look and act like a human.

"Gynoid" is the feminine form, although "android" is used almost universally to refer to both. Until recently, androids have largely remained within the domain of science fiction, frequently seen in film and television.

Etymology

The word was coined from the Greek root ????- 'man' and the suffix -oid 'having the form or likeness of'. [3] The term was first mentioned by St. Albertus Magnus in 1270[clarification needed] [4] and was popularized by the French writer Villiers in his 1886 novel L'Ève future. The term "android" appears in US patents as early as 1863 in reference to miniature human-like toy automatons. [5]

The term "droid", coined by George Lucas for the original Star Wars film and now used widely within science fiction, originated as an abridgment of "android", but has been used by Lucas and others to mean any robot, including distinctly non-humaniform machines like R2-D2. The abbreviation "andy", coined as a pejorative by writer Philip K. Dick in his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, has seen some further usage, such as within the TV series Total Recall 2070. [6]

[source: Wikipedia]