analyst

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈænəlɪst/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French analyste, a person who analyses, from analyser, to analyse (see analyse),^[2][3][4] after nouns in -iste from verbs in -iser;^[4] Merriam-Webster derives it from analyze after pairs like Latinize and Latinist.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mathematician skilled in algebraic geometry: 1656, the 1650s in Etymonline.^[6][2][5]

Semantic evolution

A person who analyses in general is from 1753,^[6] and one skilled in chemical analysis from 1800.^[6] In music it is from 1885,^[6] and as a short form of psychoanalyst from 1914;^[2][6] the person analysed is an analysand (1933).^[2] A practitioner of philosophical analysis is from 1936,^[6] and a systems analyst is a computing sense.^[7] Greek analytēr meant a deliverer.^[2]

Timeline

• 1656 – a mathematician.^[6]
• 1753 – one who analyses.^[6]
• 1800 – a chemical analyst.^[6]
• 1914 – a psychoanalyst.^[6]
• 1933 – analysand.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who analyses, or is skilled in analysis, as of data, markets or politics.
2. A psychoanalyst.
3. A systems analyst.

Word family

• cryptanalyst
• psychoanalyst

Related words

• analysis
• analyse
• analyze
• analytic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin