genuflect

English

WOTD – 22 January 2008

Etymology

PIE word
*ǵónu

From around 1620–1630 from Medieval Latin genūflectō (“I bend the knee”) equivalent to the Latin genū (“knee”) + flectō (“to bend”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛn.jʊ.flɛkt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

genuflect (third-person singular simple present genuflects, present participle genuflecting, simple past and past participle genuflected)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To bend the knee, as in servitude.
2. (intransitive) To briefly enter a position that touches one knee to the ground in a manner that is typically associated with formal homage or religious worship.
   • 1913, Adrian Fortescue, Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Gospel in the Liturgy:

     At high Mass the deacon and subdeacon stand on either side, genuflect too, and answer.

   • 1965, Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag:

     First you get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries, / Bow your head with great respect and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect.

   • circ. 1965, Mario Puzo, The Godfather:

     She took the holy water on her fingertips and made the sign of the cross, fleetingly touched her wet fingertips to her parched lips. Candles flickered redly before the saints, the Christ on his cross. Kay genuflected before entering her row and then knelt on the hard wooden rail of the pew to wait for her call to Communion.

3. (intransitive, figurative) To behave in a servile manner; to grovel.
   • 2017 September 27, Julianne Tveten, “Zucktown, USA”, in The Baffler‎^[1]:

     Certainly, the megalomaniacs who aim to populate municipal fixtures with registered-trademark logos will expect cities to genuflect at every turn.

Usage notes

The brief manner of touching one knee to the ground while genuflecting differs from the duration typically associated with kneeling down onto one or two knees.

Related terms

• genuflection
• genuflector

Translations

to bend the knee, as in servitude, homage, or worship

• Albanian: bie në gjunjë
• Bulgarian: коленича (bg) (koleniča)
• Catalan: agenollar-se (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 跪 (zh) (guì), 下跪 (zh) (xiàguì)

• Danish: bøje knæ
• Esperanto: genufleksi
• Finnish: polvistua (fi)
• French: faire une génuflexion (fr), génuflexer (fr), génuflexionner (fr)
• Galician: dobregar o xeonllo, fincar o xeonllo
• Georgian: მუხლის მოდრეკა (muxlis modreḳa), დაჩოქება (dačokeba)
• German: niederknien (de)
• Greek: προσκυνώ (el) (proskynó)
• Hebrew: כָּרַע בֶּרֶךְ m (kará' bérech)
• Icelandic: gera knéfall, koma fyrir kné, falla á kné, knékrjúpa
• Italian: (active intransitive) genuflettere
• Japanese: 跪く (ja) (ひざまずく, hizamazuku)
• Persian: زانو خم کردن
• Polish: klękać (pl)
• Portuguese: genuflectir (pt)
• Russian: преклоня́ть коле́на/коле́ни impf (preklonjátʹ koléna/koléni), преклони́ть коле́на/коле́ни pf (preklonítʹ koléna/koléni)
• Spanish: doblar la rodilla, arrodillarse (es)
• Swedish: knäfalla (sv), knäböja (sv)
• Tagalog: yumukdo
• Turkish: diz çökmek (tr)

to behave in a servile manner

• Finnish: kyyristellä (fi)
• French: faire une génuflexion (fr)
• Georgian: მუხლის მოდრეკა (muxlis modreḳa), დაჩოქება (dačokeba)
• Italian: (passive intransitive) essere (it) genuflesso (it), (reflexive) genuflettersi (it)
• Russian: пресмыка́ться (ru) impf (presmykátʹsja), соверша́ть коленопреклоне́ние impf (soveršátʹ kolenopreklonénije), соверши́ть коленопреклоне́ние pf (soveršítʹ kolenopreklonénije)

References

• “genuflect”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.