Etymograph

English

deflection

Deflection comes from Latin dēflectō ‘to bend or turn downwards or away’, and goes back to flectō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflectō1‘to bend, curve or bow’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflectō2as dēflectere‘to bend or turn downwards or away’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflexiō2
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1918deflection2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin deflecto
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English deflection
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, H. G. Wells: “The next morning Oswald stopped short in the middle…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflectōWiktionary, Latin deflecto‘to bend, curve or bow’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflectōWiktionary, English deflectionas dēflectere‘to bend or turn downwards or away’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēflexiōWiktionary, English deflection
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1918deflectionWiktionary, English deflection. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, H. G. Wells: “The next morning Oswald stopped short in the middle…”

Equivalent to deflect + -ion

Latin flecto ‘to bend’

Latin deflecto ‘to bend or turn downwards or away’

English deflect

The story

The non-etymological spelling deflection is taken from the present stem dēflect-, associated with collection, dissection, etc.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin flectō ‘to bend, curve or bow’

flexible, flexibility, reflect, flex, inflection, 12 more

Today it means

noun The act of deflecting or something deflected.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “deflection”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin deflecto. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin flectō / deflection

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