analytic

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin analyticus (“analytical”), recorded in the 6th century in Boethius,^[2][3] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary call Medieval Latin,^[4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀναλυτικός (analutikós, “analytical”).^[2][5][6][4] The Greek adjective is formed from ἀνάλυτος (análutos, “dissolvable”), from ἀναλύω (analúō, “to unloose, undo”),^[2][3][4] the verb behind ἀνάλυσις (análusis), the source of analysis.^[6][2] It is made of ἀνά (aná, “up, back, throughout”) and λύω (lúō, “to loosen, unfasten”),^[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *leu- (“to loosen, divide, cut apart”).^[4] The noun goes back to analytica, from the Greek neuter plural of the adjective, which Aristotle used as the title of his treatises on logic.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, the branch of logic dealing with analysis, or an analytical method: first recorded about 1566, in George Buchanan.^[2][7] The adjective, relating to or proceeding by analysis, follows in 1602, in Ben Jonson's Poetaster.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to 1601,^[3] Etymonline to about 1600.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective began in philosophy and logic, for reasoning that breaks a whole into its elements.^[2] From 1761 it was used of mathematical analysis; from 1800 it was also used of a function that can be represented locally by a power series.^[2] In 1789 it was first applied to a person or mind given to analysing things.^[2] In 1797, in a translation from the German Kantian philosophy, it was used of a judgement whose predicate adds nothing to the concept of its subject, so that it is true by definition.^[2][3] Linguists from 1816 called analytic the languages that express grammatical relations by separate words rather than by inflections, such as Chinese, as opposed to synthetic ones.^[2][8] Since 1898, in Havelock Ellis's translation of Freud, it has also meant psychoanalytic.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1566 – noun, the branch of logic dealing with analysis (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1602 – adjective, relating to or proceeding by analysis.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1601.^[3]
• 1761 – in mathematics, relating to analysis.^[2]
• 1789 – given to analysing.^[2]
• 1797 – in logic, of a judgement true by the meaning of its terms.^[2]
• 1800 – of a mathematical function, expressible as a power series.^[2]
• 1816 – in linguistics, using separate words rather than inflections.^[2]
• 1898 – psychoanalytic.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to or using analysis, the separation of a whole into its parts: an analytic approach to the problem.^[3][8][2]
2. Skilled in or inclined to analysis: She has a sharply analytic mind.^[3][8][2]
3. (logic) Of a statement, true by virtue of the meaning of its terms, its predicate adding nothing to its subject; opposed to synthetic.^[3][2]
4. (linguistics) Of a language, expressing grammatical relations by separate words such as auxiliaries and prepositions rather than by inflections.^[8][2]
5. (mathematics) Of a function, having derivatives of all orders and expressible locally as a power series.^[2][3]
6. Psychoanalytic.^[2][3]

Word family

• analytically
• analyticity
• nonanalytic
• semianalytic
• unanalytic
• psychoanalytic
• analytic continuation
• analytic geometry

Related words

• analysis
• analyse
• analytical
• analytics
• analyst
• lysis
• synthetic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins