The word ‘drone’ originally named expendable, nongenuine target dummies

Evidence

Initially, the English word “drone” meant both an insect and a sound. It was not until the outbreak of World War II that it began to take on another meaning. At that time, American artillery apprentices used the expression “target drones” to designate the small remotely controlled planes at which they aimed in training. The metaphor did not refer solely to the size of those machines or the brm-brm of their motors. Drones are male bees, without stingers, and eventually the other bees kill them. Classical tradition regarded them as emblems of all that is nongenuine and dispensable. That was precisely what a target drone was: just a dummy, made to be shot down. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 146

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s core theme of drones as replaceable, disposable combatants versus the target’s value. — connects to: Drone imagery functions as targeting rather than representation — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 395; Drone targeting echoes archaic wax-doll nailing practices — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 397
• DEFINE: Explains the etymological root of ‘drone’ in insect life and classical tradition, foundational to the whole theory.

Related

• Drone targeting echoes archaic wax-doll nailing practices (similarity 0.87)
• Drones resolve the guerrilla problem by depriving insurgents of any target to attack. (similarity 0.82)
• Drones transformed from surveillance eyes into weapons almost by chance. (similarity 0.80)
• Drone imagery functions as targeting rather than representation (similarity 0.79)
• A drone is a reusable platform, unlike a one-shot missile (similarity 0.79)
• Weapons constitute the essence of combatants, not mere instruments (similarity 0.78)
• Drones abolish the condition of combat that makes combatants identifiable. (similarity 0.78)
• Drones transform war from combat-defined zones into pursuit-defined hunting grounds. (similarity 0.78)