Flexible means bending easily without breaking. A flexible hose, flexible plastic, flexible enough to work.
Of plans and people it means willing to change: flexible hours, a flexible approach, we can be flexible. Flexible working is the British legal term for the right to request changed hours or place of work. Note flexibility; inflexible, which of a person is a criticism; and that flexible in a job advertisement often means the hours are unpredictable rather than that you get to choose them.
1adjectiveflexibleBending easily without breaking.
“The hose stays flexible down to about minus nine degrees.”
2adjectiveableWilling or able to change.
“They were flexible about everything except the date.”
flexible is a quality of bending.
Latin flexibilis comes from flectere, to bend — the same verb as in reflect, deflect and inflection. A flexible thing bends, and a reflection is light bent back.
Latin
flexibilis
Middle French
flexible
English, today
flexible
Built from
From Middle French flexible, from Latin flexibilis, from flectō (“to bend, curve”). Morphologically flex + ible.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA