Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Early 20th century ·1960
Cyborg
cybernetic organism
- Meaning
- A being combining biological and artificial components.
- Source words
- cybernetic + organism
- Coined by
- Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline
- Year
- 1960
Background
Coined in a NASA-commissioned paper on modifying human physiology for space travel. Science fiction ran with it before the paper's proposals were seriously tested.
Early 20th century
Industrialisation generated new things that needed new names, fast. Motoring, electricity, telecommunications, and urban pollution all produced portmanteaus within a generation of their arrival.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.