a. [f. L. analog-us (a. Gr. ἀνάλογ-ος: see prec.) + -OUS.]
1. Having, or characterized by, analogy; similar in certain attributes, circumstances, relations or uses; having something parallel. (Const to.)
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 95. Analogus relations concerning other plants, and such as are of neare affinity unto this.
1736. Butler, Anal., VII. iii. 101. We are in a state of trial … analogous or like to our moral and religious trial.
1832. J. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), I. v. 171. Two resembling objects are said … to be analogous, when one of them belongs to some class expressly or tacitly referred to and the other does not.
1847. Grote, Greece (1862), III. xliii. 562. The rest of Sicily had experienced disorders analogous in character to those of Syracuse.
b. esp. in Nat. Hist.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 55. The bristles and quils in other Animals … are analogous to the hairs in a man.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Analogy, The gills of fishes are said to be analogous to the lungs in terrestrial animals.
1854. Woodward, Man. Mollusca (1856), 47. Parts which correspond in their real nature (their origin and development) are termed ‘homologous’; those which agree merely in appearance or office are said to be ‘analogous.’
2. Expressing an analogy; = ANALOGICAL 3. rare.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., iii. 42. An analogous, if not an univocal generation.
1860. Abp. Thomson, Laws of Th., § 58. Nouns are either Univocal, Equivocal, or Analogous. In analogous nouns one meaning is extended to new sets of objects from some proportion or resemblance between them.
