Where does “reflect” come from?
Reflect comes from Old French reflect, from Latin reflecto meaning to bend back, composed of Latin re- and a root from Proto-Italic wre deriving from Proto-Indo-European wert- and wer-.
reflect (English): To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface
Definitions
- To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface
Ancestry of “reflect”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | reflecter | — |
| 2 | Latin | reflectō | to turn back or away; yield; retreat |
| 3 | Latin | rĕ- | back, backwards |
| 4 | Latin | prōdūcō | to lead or bring forth, forward or out |
| 5 | Latin | prō- | forward direction, forward movement |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | *pro- | pro- see the Latin entry for further meanings |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | pro- | toward, forward |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | por- | to give birth; forward, through; going, passage |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | per- | before, in front; first; to go through |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | pr̥tós | passed , crossed |
Words derived from “reflect”
- reflective
- reflector
- reflectance
- reflectively
- reflectivity
- unreflective
- reflectiveness
- reflectarray
- unreflectively
- reflectometry
- nonreflective
- reflectron
- reflectometer
- reflectography
- irreflective
- antireflective
- retroreflector
- reflectivist
- retroreflective
- transflective
- reflectogram
- reflecteth
- hyperreflectivity
- hyperreflective