[after the fictional inventor of such a device in a story by Robert A. Heinlein (published as by "Anson MacDonald"); see 1942 quote] a remotely-operated body, arm, etc. used variously to extend the user's natural abilities, perform work in an inhospitable environment or at a distance, etc. Hence waldo-ized, adj. Compare body-waldo.
- 1942 A. MacDonald Waldo Astounding SF (Aug.) № 16: Even the [...] humanoid gadgets known universally as "waldoes" [...] passed through several generations of development [...] in Waldo's machine shop before he redesigned them for mass production. The first of them [...] had been designed to enable Waldo to operate a metal lathe.
- 1957 R. Silverberg One-Way Journey World of Thousand Colors (1984) № 131: We make a good team on the waldoes.
- 1973 J. Tiptree, Jr. Girl Who Was Plugged In Screwtop/Girl Who Was Plugged In (1989) № 18: But Delphi is no robot. Call her a waldo if you must. The fact is she's just a girl, a real live girl with her brain in an unusual place.
- 1978 D.A. Stanwood Memory of Eva Ryker № 30: The bathyscaphs are both equipped with remote manipulators — the experts call them "Waldos" — for working under the extreme pressure.
- 1982 W. Gibson Burning Chrome T. Shippey Oxford Book of SF (1992) № 500: I was working late in the loft one night, shaving down a chip, my arm off and the little waldo jacked straight into the stump.
- 1987 T. Easton Analog SF/Sci. Fact (Sept.) № 165/1: In Pohl's case, the aliens are using humans as organic waldoes that permit them to meet and bargain for Earth's wealth, and the humans be damned.
- 1993 K.S. Robinson Red Mars (1993) № 373: We're like dwarves in a waldo [...]. One of those really big waldo excavators. We're inside it and supposed to be moving a mountain, and instead of using the waldo capabilities we're leaning out of a window and digging with teaspoons.
- 1996 D. Pringle, et al. Ultimate Ency. of SF № 106/3: The climax comes when Ripley, clad in waldo-ized battle gear, takes on head-to-head the queen of the alien hive in a dazzling set-piece.
