In a manner relating to machines or physical forces; done in an automatic, routine way without much thought or feeling.
From 'mechanical' (Greek 'mechanikos'—relating to machines), derived from 'mechane' (machine, device). The adverbial suffix '-ly' indicates manner. The term evolved from describing literal machinery to describing automatic, unthinking behavior.
Your body can do truly mechanical tasks—like playing a memorized piano piece—without conscious attention, because your cerebellum (the brain's choreographer) takes over routine movements, freeing your prefrontal cortex to handle new information.
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