[a. Fr. analogue, f. Gr. ἀνάλογ-ον ANALOGON, which was in earlier use.]
1. An analogous word or thing; a representative in different circumstances or situation; something performing a corresponding part.
1837. Whewell, Induct. Sc. (1857), III. 438. Identifying … the strata with their foreign analogues.
1839. Hallam, Hist. Lit., IV. IV. v. § 12. 228. Boileau is the analogue of Pope in French literature.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., viii. 324. ‘Renard the Fox’ has its analogue among the Kafirs.
2. esp. in Nat. Hist. a. A part of an animal or plant that in function answers to a different part in another animal or plant; a representative or corresponding organ. Strictly said of organs of different origin.
1826. Kirby & Spence, Introd. Entomol., III. 566. In Vespa &c. a small subtriangular piece just below the base of the upper wing is probably its analogue.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., vii. 137. The green cells which clothe the veins of the leaf, and fill up all its interspaces, may be regarded as the analogues of the green leaves which clothe the branches of the tree.
1878. Foster, Phys., I. iv. § 5. 158. Such a vasometer centre has an analogue in the intrinsic ganglia of the heart.
b. A species or tribe in one region, or at one period of the earth’s history, which represents or occupies the place of a different species or tribe in another country, or at a different epoch; a foreign representative, an ancient or modern representative.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 28. Steno had compared the fossil shells with their recent analogues.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 105. The Arctic vegetation has no analogue in the southern hemisphere.
c. A species or group of animals or plants that occupies in relation to the division to which it belongs a position similar to that of another species or group in relation to its division; a representative in a different class or group; as the newt is among amphibians the analogue of the lizard among reptiles.
1835. Kirby, Habits & Inst. Anim., I. ii. 71. Humming birds, like the butterflies, whose analogues they are, suck the nectar of the flowers.
1858. T. R. Jones, Aquar. Nat., 253. This sipunculus, however, would appear to be of a less changeable disposition than its crustacean analogue.
1879. G. Allen, Colour Sense, iii. 25. The fishes, marine analogues of flying creatures.
