Etymologically
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dialysis

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Pronunciation

  • /daɪˈælɪsɪs/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dialysis,[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek διάλυσις (diálusis, “separation, dissolution”),[2][3][6][7] from διαλύω (dialúō, “to break up, dissolve”),[2][6][7] formed from διά (diá, “apart”) and λύω (lúō, “to loosen, set free”).[3][6][7][8] Etymonline derives the verb from Proto-Indo-European *leu- (“to loosen, divide, cut apart”),[3][7] and Ayto relates it to less, loose, lose and loss, and to analysis.[9] In Greek it was used of the disbanding of troops and of a divorce,[3] and in Hellenistic Greek also as a term of rhetoric and grammar,[2] the uses in which Latin grammarians took it over from the 4th century.[2] Barnhart treats the chemical term of 1861 as a fresh borrowing from Greek.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In rhetoric, a statement of irreconcilable or disjunctive propositions: 1550, in Richard Sherry's Treatise of Schemes and Tropes.[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to the 1580s,[3] and Dictionary.com to 1580–90.[11]

Semantic evolution

As a term of rhetoric and grammar, the word was used for asyndeton (1653) and for the division of one syllable into two, now called diaeresis (from 1665).[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as the figure by which syllables or words are divided.[12] In medicine it meant a loss of strength (1775) and the breaking down of tissue (1785).[2] The modern chemical sense, the separation of substances in a solution through a membrane, was introduced in 1861 by the Scottish chemist Thomas Graham, who discovered the process.[10][6][9][2] The medical use for cleansing the blood of waste is recorded by 1914 according to Barnhart and Etymonline,[10][3] while the OED's first record of therapeutic dialysis, especially for kidney failure, is from 1944.[2] The verb dialyze was formed from the noun on the model of analyze.[3]

Timeline

  • 1550 – in rhetoric, a statement of disjunctive propositions (obsolete by 1599).[2]
  • 1653 – asyndeton (obsolete).[2]
  • 1665 – the division of one syllable into two, diaeresis.[2][3]
  • 1785 – the breaking down of tissue in the body.[2]
  • 1861 – the separation of substances through a membrane, in Thomas Graham's work.[2][10][6]
  • 1914 – the removal of waste from the blood.[10][3]
  • 1944 – therapeutic dialysis for kidney failure.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The separation of smaller molecules and ions from larger ones and colloids in a solution by diffusion through a semipermeable membrane.[13][5][2]
  2. (medicine) The removal of waste products from the blood of a patient whose kidneys have failed, by passing it through such a membrane; hemodialysis: She goes for dialysis three times a week.[5][2]
  3. (grammar) Diaeresis, the division of one syllable into two.[2][12]

Word family

  • dialytic
  • dialytically
  • hemodialysis
  • electrodialysis
  • histodialysis
  • dialyze
  • dialyse

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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 c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster