Etymology

reflex

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Today it means: An automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing. Full definition →

Late Latin reflexus
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The story

  1. Late Latin · derived fromreflexus
  2. English todayreflex

From Late Latin reflexus, past participle of reflectere (“to bend back”), equivalent to re- + flex. Photography sense is from noun sense meaning “reflection”. Compare English reflect.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.