análisis

Forms

análisis m (plural análisis)^[1] Older texts write analysis, analisis, analysi and analisi;^[2] analís is recorded in Argentina and in Judeo-Spanish.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις (análusis, “a loosening; resolution”).^[3][4][1] The DTME and Wikcionario take it through Medieval Latin analysis, and the DTME notes that the word was in French and English from the 16th century.^[5][6]

The Greek noun is formed from Ancient Greek ἀναλύω (analúō, “to unloose, resolve”) + -σις (-sis).^[1][3] The verb is ἀνά (ana, “back, again”) added to λύω (lúō, “to loosen”), which Gómez de Silva traces to Proto-Indo-European *leu- (“to loosen”).^[7] In Greek it meant a loosening or dissolving, and in Aristotle the resolution of a problem into its conditions, the opposite of synthesis.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TDHLE's first record is from 1587, in P. S. Abril's Filosofía racional, where Analysis o resolución is one of the methods of the sciences, the one Aristotle opposed to Génesis.^[2] The BDELC dates the word to 1617.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed long in learned use: in 1634 Lope de Vega mocked the fashion of calling resolución an Analisis.^[2][9] In the 18th century it spread to mathematics (Tosca, 1709), to chemistry (Feijoo, 1728) and to the detailed study of a text or problem.^[2] The medical sense, a test of blood or other fluids, is recorded from the early 20th century.^[2]

Its gender changed: in the 18th century it was mostly feminine; the masculine gained ground through the 19th century, and the feminine is exceptional in the 20th.^[2] The Academy called it feminine from 1726 to 1852, of either gender from 1869 to 1970 and masculine from 1984; its spelling went from análysis (1726) through analisis (1770–1822) to análisis (from 1832).^[2]

Timeline

• 1587 – P. S. Abril, Filosofía racional, the first record.^[2]
• 1607 – Céspedes's Rhetórica calls analysis the second exercise of rhetoric.^[2]
• 1617 – the BDELC's date.^[3]
• 1634 – Lope de Vega mocks the word in the Rimas de Tomé de Burguillos.^[2][9]
• 1709 – Tosca uses it in mathematics.^[2]
• 1726 – first in the Academy's dictionary, as the feminine análysis.^[2]
• 1728 – Feijoo writes of the análysis of a seed, the chemical sense.^[2][9]
• 1788 – the first record from the Americas, in Peru, of chemical analysis.^[10]
• 1984 – the Academy classes it as masculine only.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The analysis of something: the separation of its parts to learn its composition.^[4][1]
2. A detailed study of something, especially of a work or text: un análisis de la novela.^[4]
3. Psychoanalytic treatment.^[4]
4. (grammar) The examination of the parts of a sentence and their functions.^[4][2]
5. (mathematics) The branch of mathematics based on limits, continuity, derivatives and integrals.^[4][1]
6. A medical test of blood, urine or other substances (análisis clínico); its result.^[4][11]

Word family

• analizar
• autoanálisis
• criptoanálisis
• psicoanálisis

Related words

• analista
• analítico
• diálisis
• catálisis
• parálisis

Usage notes

Análisis is masculine and has the same form in the plural (los análisis).^[1][4] The feminine (la análisis), usual in the 18th century, is now exceptional.^[2] The phrase en último análisis “in the final analysis” follows French en dernière analyse.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. análisis
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. análisis
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. análisis
5. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. análisis
6. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. análisis
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 63
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ἀνάλυσις
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. análisis
10. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. análise
11. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. análisis