reflex

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

reflex

Wikipedia

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)

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:

     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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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

Translations

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

Translations

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: 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)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

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)

References

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

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

reflex (biologie)

Wikipedia ^nl

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):
• 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

Derived terms

References

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

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

reflex

Wikipedia ^sv

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

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)