reflex

See also: Reflex

English

Etymology

From Late Latin reflexus, past participle of reflectere (“to bend back”). Photography sense is from noun sense meaning “reflection”.

Pronunciation

• (noun, adjective) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːflɛks/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈflɛks/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

reflex (plural reflexes)

Examples
English eye is the reflex of Old English ēage.

1. An automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing.
   • 1970, Stanisław Lem, trans. Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox, Solaris:

     For a while, I shall have to make a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand and perform the thousands of little gestures which constitute life on Earth, and then those gestures will become reflexes again.

   • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     He met Luis Suarez's cross at the far post, only for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech to show brilliant reflexes to deflect his header on to the bar. Carroll turned away to lead Liverpool's insistent protests that the ball had crossed the line but referee Phil Dowd and assistant referee Andrew Garratt waved play on, with even a succession of replays proving inconclusive.

2. (linguistics) The descendant of an earlier language element, such as a word or phoneme, in a daughter language.

   Synonym: derivative

   Antonym: etymon

   Coordinate term: cognate

3. (linguistics, rare) The ancestor word corresponding to a descendant.
   • 2011, Ki-Moon Lee, S. Robert Ramsey, A history of the Korean language:

     The Middle Korean reflex for mey was mwoy 뫼 (mwoy)

4. The descendant of anything from an earlier time, such as a cultural myth.
   • 1898, Christian Brinton, The Century:

     The superstition of the loup-garou, or werewolf, belongs to the folklore of most modern nations, and has its reflex in the story of "Little Red Riding-hood" and others.

5. (chiefly photography) Reflection or an image produced by reflection. The light reflected from an illuminated surface to one in shade.

   A reflex camera uses a mirror to reflect the image onto a ground-glass viewfinder.

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

     Yon gray is not the morning’s eye,
     ’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=Prologue or Rpilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):

     On the depths of death there swims
     The reflex of a human face.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 88:

     Lucy is sleeping soundly; the reflex of the dawn is high and far over the sea[.]

Derived terms

• Achilles tendon reflex time
• kneejerk reflex
• Moro reflex

 

Translations

automatic response

• Arabic: مُنْعَكَس (munʕakas)
• Bulgarian: рефле́кс (bg) m (refléks)
• Catalan: reflex (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反射 (zh) (fǎnshè)

• Crimean Tatar: refleks
• Czech: reflex (cs) m
• Dutch: reflex (nl) m
• Esperanto: reflekso
• Finnish: refleksi (fi), heijaste (fi)
• French: réflexe (fr)
• German: Reflex (de) m
• Greek: αντανακλαστικό (el) n (antanaklastikó)
• Hindi: प्रतिवर्त क्रिया f (prativart kriyā)
• Italian: riflesso (it) m
• Japanese: 反射 (ja) (はんしゃ, hansha)
• Kazakh: рефлекс (refleks)
• Korean: 반사(反射) (ko) (bansa)
• Maori: kahuki
• Polish: odruch (pl) m, refleks (pl) m, automat (pl) m (colloquial)
• Portuguese: reflexo (pt)
• Russian: рефле́кс (ru) m (refléks)
• Slovene: refleks m
• Spanish: reflejo (es) m
• Swahili: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: reflex (sv) c
• Tagalog: balikusa
• Turkish: refleks (tr)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: phản xạ (vi)

the descendant of an earlier language element, such as a word or phoneme, in a daughter language

• Armenian: արտացոլում (hy) (artacʻolum)
• Dutch: reflex (nl)
• French: continuateur (fr) m
• German: Kontinuante f, Fortsetzer m
• Italian: riflesso (it) m, continuatore (it) m
• Spanish: reflejo (es) m, continuador m

Adjective

reflex (comparative more reflex, superlative most reflex)

1. Bent, turned back or reflected.
   • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC:

     the reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions

2. Produced automatically by a stimulus.
3. (geometry, of an angle) Having greater than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees.
   • 1878, James Maurice Wilson, Elementary Geometry, MacMillan, page 10:

     A polygon is said to be convex when no one of its angles is reflex.

   • 1895, David Eugen Smith, Wooster Woodruff Bernan, New Plane and Solid Geometry, page 7:

     An angle less than a right angle is said to be acute; one greater than a right angle but less than a straight angle is said to be obtuse; one greater than a straight angle but less than a perigon is said to be reflex or convex.

   • 1958, Howard Fehr, “On Teaching Dihedral Angle and Steradian” in The Mathematics Teacher, v 51, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, page 275:

     If the reflex region is the interior of the angle, the dihedral angle is reflex.

   • 1991, B. Falcidieno et al., “Configurable Representations in Feature-based Modelling”, in Eurographics '91: Proceedings, North-Holland, page 145:

     A reflex edge of a polyhedron is an edge where the inner dihedral angle subtended by two incident faces is greater than 180°.

   • 2001, Esther M. Arkin et al., “On the Reflexivity of Point Sets”, in Algorithms and data structures: 7th International Workshop, WADS 2001: Proceedings, Springer, page 195:

     We say that an angle is convex if it is not reflex.

   • 2004, Ana Paula Tomás and António Leslie Bajuelos, “Quadratic-Time Linear-Space Algorithms Generating Orthogonal Polygons with a Given Number of Vertices”, in Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2004 Proceedings, part 3, Springer, page 117:

     P denotes a polygon and r the number of reflex vertices.

4. (painting) Illuminated by light reflected from another part of the same picture.

Synonyms

• (of an angle): re-entrant

Derived terms

• abdominal reflex
• abdominocardiac reflex
• Babinski reflex
• bass reflex
• conditioned reflex
• Cushing reflex
• dysphoric milk ejection reflex
• ergoreflex
• Ferguson reflex
• gag reflex
• Lombard reflex
• patellar reflex
• photic sneeze reflex
• pilomotor reflex
• reflex angle
• reflex arc
• reflex camera
• reflex hammer
• reflex mirror
• reflex response
• reflex sympathetic dystrophy
• reflex viewfinder
• rooting reflex
• single-lens reflex, single lens reflex, SLR
• twin-lens reflex, twin lens reflex, TLR, dual-lens reflex
• unken reflex

 

Translations

of an angle

• Maori: rāwaho
• Tagalog: pabalik

of a type of camera

• Bulgarian: огледален (ogledalen)
• Hungarian: tükörreflexes (hu)

Verb

reflex (third-person singular simple present reflexes, present participle reflexing, simple past and past participle reflexed)

1. (transitive) To bend back or turn back over itself.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To reflect (light, sight, etc.).
3. (transitive, obsolete) To reflect or mirror (an object), to show the image of.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To cast (beams of light) on something.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene i:

     The ſpring is hindered by your ſmoothering hoſt,
     For neither rain can fall vpon the earth,
     Nor Sun reflexe his vertuous beames thereon.
     The ground is mantled with ſuch multitudes.

5. To respond to a stimulus.

Anagrams

• Flexer

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin reflexus. First attested in 1803.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [rəˈflɛks]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [reˈflɛks]

Adjective

reflex (feminine reflexa, masculine plural reflexos, feminine plural reflexes)

1. reflected

   Synonym: reflectit

2. (psychology) reflex

   acte reflex ― reflex action

3. (botany) reflexed
4. (linguistics) reflexive

   Synonym: reflexiu

Noun

reflex m (plural reflexos)

1. reflection (something that is reflected)

   Synonym: reflexió

2. reflex (an automatic response to a simple stimulus)

Further reading

• “reflex” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “reflex” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “reflex” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Czech

Noun

reflex m inan

1. reflex

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Related terms

• See flexe

Further reading

• reflex in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• reflex in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French réflexe, from Latin reflexus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reːˈflɛks/, /rəˈflɛks/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧flex
• Rhymes: -ɛks

Noun

reflex m (plural reflexen, diminutive reflexjes n)

1. reflex (automatic response by an organism)

   Synonym: reflexus

Derived terms

• reflexachtig
• reflexmatig

Descendants

• → Indonesian: refleks

Hungarian

Etymology

From German Reflex, from French réflexe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈrɛflɛks]
• Hyphenation: ref‧lex
• Rhymes: -ɛks

Noun

reflex (plural reflexek)

1. reflex (an automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing)
2. (photography) reflection

   Synonyms: visszfény, tükröződés

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	reflex	reflexek
accusative	reflexet	reflexeket
dative	reflexnek	reflexeknek
instrumental	reflexszel	reflexekkel
causal-final	reflexért	reflexekért
translative	reflexszé	reflexekké
terminative	reflexig	reflexekig
essive-formal	reflexként	reflexekként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	reflexben	reflexekben
superessive	reflexen	reflexeken
adessive	reflexnél	reflexeknél
illative	reflexbe	reflexekbe
sublative	reflexre	reflexekre
allative	reflexhez	reflexekhez
elative	reflexből	reflexekből
delative	reflexről	reflexekről
ablative	reflextől	reflexektől
non-attributive possessive - singular	reflexé	reflexeké
non-attributive possessive - plural	reflexéi	reflexekéi

Possessive forms of reflex
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	reflexem	reflexeim
2nd person sing.	reflexed	reflexeid
3rd person sing.	reflexe	reflexei
1st person plural	reflexünk	reflexeink
2nd person plural	reflexetek	reflexeitek
3rd person plural	reflexük	reflexeik

Derived terms

Compound words

• reflexkalapács
• reflexmozdulat
• térdreflex
• tükörreflex → tükörreflexes

 

Further reading

• reflex in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French réflexe, from Latin Reflex.

Adjective

reflex m or n (feminine singular reflexă, masculine plural reflecși, feminine and neuter plural reflexe)

1. reflex

Declension

Declension of reflex

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	reflex		reflexă	reflecși	reflexe
	definite	reflexul		reflexa	reflecșii	reflexele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	reflex		reflexe	reflecși	reflexe
	definite	reflexului		reflexei	reflecșilor	reflexelor

Swedish

en reflex (sense 2)

Etymology

From French réflexe, first attested 1811.

Noun

reflex c

1. a reflex, a (quick and spontaneous) reaction
2. a reflector (tag, strip or band; carried by pedestrians and bicyclists to be visible from automobiles)
3. a reflex (reflection)

Declension

Declension of reflex
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	reflex	reflexen	reflexer	reflexerna
Genitive	reflex	reflexens	reflexers	reflexernas

Derived terms

• betingad reflex (“conditioned reflex”)
• reflexväst (“reflective vest, high-visibility vest”)

References

• reflex in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• reflex in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)