berserker

Meaning

Noun

• A berserk .
• One who fights as if frenzied, like a berserker.
• A type of von Neumann probe whose mission is to exterminate alien lifeforms.

Origin

• Introduced in English with the spelling berserkar by Walter Scott in his 1822 novel The Pirate from Old Norse berserkr. The science fiction sense was coined by Fred Saberhagen in 1963 in his Berserker series.