English
reflex
Reflex comes from Late Latin reflexus ‘turned back or away, reflected’, and goes back to Latin flectō ‘to bend, curve or bow’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflectō‘to bend, curve or bow’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEreflectōas reflectere, past participle‘to bend back’
- Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEreflexus‘turned back or away, reflected’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588reflex
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflectō‘to bend, curve or bow’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEreflectōas reflectere, past participle‘to bend back’
- Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEreflexus‘turned back or away, reflected’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588reflex
Earliest quotation: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “The ſpring is hindered by your ſmoothering hoſt, For…”
The story
Photography sense is from noun sense meaning “reflection”.
Linked words
through Latin flectō ‘to bend, curve or bow’
flexibility, flexible, deflection, inflection, deflect, flexion, flexor, 10 more
Today it means
noun An automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin flectō / reflex