I am at a conference on reflection, and the first day's speakers talked a lot about preflection. They specifically said they found this word in the dictionary and it means the thought you do before actual reflection. They also discussed inflection, which they said puts the character into reflection (e.g., the inflections in your language). I thought this so interesing and was thinking about deflection and what part that would play. However, then I looked up preflection and couldn't find it in Onelook or the OED. Is it a word?

It's probably as valid a word as is "prequel". Yukk.

Ah, the old "is it a word" question.

It has only 962 Google hits. I'd say that, like a lot of jargon, it's something that's been coined, probably independently, by a few people who have gone through the specious logic of

1. I want a word that means "think about"
2. I want to think about things that haven't happened yet.
3. I can only "reflect" on things that have happened.
4. "Pre" means before.
5. Hey, I know, what about "preflection".

It's a word in the sense that it's a pronouncable combination of letters. It certainly hasn't made its way into anything like widespread use though.

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Originally posted by Richard English:
It's probably as valid a word as is "prequel". Yukk.

So what word would you prefer? Remember it must mean "a story written after a previous story but set before it".

I once, in a letter to a magazine, coined the word "biquel" to describe a sequel to two different books - "Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula" springs to mind.

Incidentally, I'd be more concerned about this usage of "inflection", especially in the quoted example.

This meaning of inflection strikes me as being both poorly defined and at odds with the more conventional meanings.

In language, inflection already has a specific meaning, two in fact: how words change their form and the patterns of intonation in speaking. To add a third, previously unheard of meaning just because of the resemblance to reflection seems to me to be another instance of the Humpty Dumpty principal.

People, especially academics, do like to make up their own words.

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So what word would you prefer? Remember it must mean "a story written after a previous story but set before it".

I'd have to think about it - but I'm sure that there could be a better one. Prequel, like preflection, is surely based on just as specious a logical process.

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People, especially academics, do like to make up their own words.

I couldn't agree more with what you say about inflection. Let them make up and use preflection. They won't confuse me when they use it, leaving aside that from the definition given by Kalleh, it is a nonsense term.

Kalleh: how does one determine when preflection ends and reflection begins? Must reflection always be preceded by preflection? Is preflection always followed by reflection, or can one's flection be abortive?

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Originally posted by Richard English:

quote:

So what word would you prefer? Remember it must mean "a story written after a previous story but set before it".

I'd have to think about it - but I'm sure that there could be a better one. Prequel, like preflection, is surely based on just as specious a logical process.

I shall await the result of your preflections and reflections with bated breath. In the meantime, given that "prequel" is in common use and has around six million ghits, I'd say that - like it or not - it is the correct word for the job.

It would be handy to know the etymology of sequel and sequence in order to create a better word. But I rather suspect that prequel is a product of the same kind of silly thinking that gives us the oxymoronic term "quad bike" (1,260,000 ghits) instead of the correct term "quadricycle" or "quad".

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It has only 962 Google hits. I'd say that, like a lot of jargon,

The curious thing is that he said it's in the dictionary. I merely wanted to read about it because, I, like Valentine, wondered when preflection began and reflection ended.

I wonder what dictionary he used.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
The curious thing is that he said it's in the dictionary. I merely wanted to read about it because, I, like Valentine, wondered when preflection began and reflection ended.

I wonder what dictionary he used.

His own.
Quite literally. He might have a dictionary he carries around with him which has words in it he has coined, like "preflection", and he adds to it as he comes up with new ones.
Technically, as long as he doesn't name a specific dictionary, he would then be correct in saying his word is in the dictionary.
I hope I'm being facetious in my assumption.

preflection

I found five verbs which are from the Latin flecto, flectere, 'to bend': circumflect, deflect, genuflect, inflect, and reflect (link). The two which have wandered away from their etymological meanings (of some sort of bending) are inflect and reflect. How did the act of thinking (seriously, as A-H puts it) come to be represented by the bending or throwing back of something (e.g., light, blame)? Is preflection some sort of idle musing or brainstorming?

"Preflection" sounds synonymous with clairvoyance to me.

From the context given by Kalleh, it seems clear to me that preflection is just pre-reflection, whatever that is.

I should have said "prognostication," not "clairvoyance."

Valentine, that was how I understood it, but I couldn't say for sure that's what the speaker meant. I really should have asked him about his dictionary, though.

z, isn't the "throwing back of something" definition, as in refection from a mirror, much the same as intellectual reflection? You think about what happened (thus "throwing it back",) examine your assumptions and actions, and dialogue about what might have improved the outcome. For example, think of the following health care crisis: the patient starts bleeding from his wound and the resident decides to give IV fluids and medication, and the latter causes the patient to an arrest; the entire crash team rushes to the unit and intubates the patient, tons of drugs are given, communication is chaotic, and eventually the patient bleeds out. The team debriefs the next day, presenting the facts, reflecting about what happened, what went wrong, and what they should have done differently. [And how they'll handle the lawsuit. ]

That was the context of our discussion. It's hard to see when the elusive "preflection" would have taken place. Perhaps it's good it isn't a real word.

Presumably the 'preflection' is supposed to happen when the resident prescribes the drugs: s/he or she thinks about the possible side-effects and realises it would be too dangerous to prescribe that particular drug in this case.

Perhaps 'forethought' is a better word.