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analysis

Etymology and origin of the English word analysis

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1581
Borrowed from
Latin analysis
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (ἀναλύω)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈnæl.ə.sɪs/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin analysis,[2][3] from Greek Ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις (análusis, “a breaking up, a loosening, a releasing”),[2][3] from ἀναλύω (analúō, “to unloose, release”),[2][3] from ana- “up, back” and λύω (lúō, “to loosen, untie”),[2][3] which Etymonline takes to Proto-Indo-European *leu- (“to loosen, divide”).[2] In Aristotle the verb meant “to analyze”, and it was also used of loosing a ship from its moorings.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The resolution of anything complex into simple elements, the opposite of synthesis: 1581, in Kirke's preface to Spenser's Shepheardes Calender,[3][4][5] the 1580s.[2]

Semantic evolution

English also formerly had a noun analyse, from French, from the 1630s.[2] In literature, the investigation of a poem or other work is from 1644,[4] and in chemistry the resolution of a compound into its elements from before 1655.[4] A statement of the results of an analysis is from the 1660s.[2][4] In the last analysis or the final analysis translates French en dernière analyse and is from 1791[4] or 1844.[2] The psychological sense, short for psychoanalysis, is from 1890.[2] Analyst is from 1656, in Hobbes,[3] analytic from 1601,[3] and analyze from 1601, in Ben Jonson, probably a back-formation from analysis.[3]

Timeline

  • 1581 – resolution into simple elements.[3][4]
  • 1601 – analyze, analytic.[3]
  • 1644 – literary analysis.[4]
  • before 1655 – chemical analysis.[4]
  • 1656 – analyst.[3]
  • 1660s – a statement of results.[2]
  • 1791 – in the last analysis.[4]
  • 1890 – psychoanalysis.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The detailed study of something by separating it into its parts.
  2. (chemistry) The separation of a substance into its elements to find out its composition.
  3. A statement of the results of such a study.
  4. Psychoanalysis.
  5. (mathematics) The branch dealing with limits, including calculus.

Word family

  • autoanalysis
  • cryptanalysis
  • cryptoanalysis
  • electroanalysis
  • hypnoanalysis
  • meta-analysis
  • metanalysis
  • microanalysis
  • analyse
  • analyze
  • analyst
  • analyte
  • analytic
  • paralysis
  • catalysis
  • dialysis
  • lose

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Analysis.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/analysis. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·