also 7–9 analize, 8 analise. [a. mod.Fr. analyse-r (= faire l’analyse), f. analyse ANALYSIS; see prec. (It might also have been formed in Eng. itself on the proc. sb.) On Greek analogies the vb. would have been analysize, Fr. analysiser, of which analyser was practically a shortened form, since, though following the analogy of pairs like annexe, annexe-r, it rested chiefly on the fact that by form-assoc. it appeared already to belong to the series of factitive vbs. in -iser, Eng. -IZE, = L. -īzāre, f. Gr. -ίζ-ειν, to which in sense it belonged. Hence from the first it was commonly written in Eng. analyze, the spelling accepted by Johnson, and historically quite defensible. The objection that this assumes a Gr. ἀναλύζ-ειν itself assumes that analyse is formed on Gr. ἀναλύς-ειν, which is etymologically impossible and historically untrue.]
Prim. sign. To take to pieces; to separate, distinguish or ascertain the elements of anything complex, as a material collection, chemical compound, light, sound, a miscellaneous list, account or statement, a sentence, phrase, word, conception, feeling, action, process, etc.
I. Generally.
† 1. Of things material: To dissect, decompose. Obs. in general sense.
1601. B. Jonson, in Chester’s Loves Mart., 186 (title), The Phœnix Analysde.
1655. Gouge, Comm. Hebr., Pref. Verses. Its clear Analysis the Text unties: ’Twas sad that death did th’Author analyze.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 96. The elements of the fruit itself, after having analyzed and dissected it.
2. Of things immaterial: (see prim. sign. above.)
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 18, ¶ 4. Careful to analyze their enjoyments.
1794. Burke, Wks., 1842, II. 476. Otherwise we should dispute all the points of morality … we should analyze all society.
a. 1832. Sir J. Macintosh, Bacon & Locke, Wks. 1846, I. 327. That incapacity of being analyzed, in which they agree with all other simple ideas.
1843. Mill, Logic (1868), Introd. 12. I shall attempt to analyse the process of inference.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 24. 358. Means of analysing the internal constitution of a glacier.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. iii. 79. No one, I presume, can analyse the sensations of pleasure and pain.
1873. Bain, Logic, II. 400. The use of the Syllogism may be expressed as analyzing or separating … the three parts of a step of reasoning.
1881. N. Kerr, in Med. Temp. Jrnl., No. 49. 23/2. If we analyse these returns for England and Wales, we find no rule for the consumption of strong drinks by either indoor or outdoor paupers.
3. Hence, to examine minutely, so as to determine the essential constitution, nature or form, apart from extraneous and accidental surroundings.
1809. Syd. Smith, Wks., 1859, I. 178/1. If by a simple pleasure is meant one, the cause of which can be easily analysed.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., I. x. 213. Having first explicitly defined and analized the nature of Jacobinism.
1833. Marryat, Pet. Simple, 1. As well as I can recollect and analyse my early propensities.
1854. Hodgson, in R. Inst. Lect., 283. Exchange … is, in all cases, when analyzed, simply each man’s giving something that he wants less, for something else that he wants more.
4. To analyse away: to get rid of by a process of analysis.
1877. R. H. Hutton, Ess. (ed. 2), I. 43. This attempt to analyse away the positive additions of creative power.
II. Specifically.
5. Chem. & Physics. To ascertain the elements (proximate or ultimate) of any compound; hence, to ascertain whether it contains any extraneous substances. To separate light into its prismatic constituents.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual. Analiz’d by Distillation. Ibid. (a. 1691), Wks. (1772), I. 358 (J.). Chymistry enabling us to depurate bodies, and in some measure to analyze them.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 192. He taught me how to analyze limestones.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xxi. 184. The plate B is called the analysing plate, because its use is to analyse, or separate into its parts, the light transmitted.
1874. Schorlemmer, Man. Chem. Carbon Compounds, 16. If the body to be analysed contains nitrogen, a coil of copper is placed in the fore part of the tube, [etc.].
Mod. Samples of water from these wells have been analyzed.
6. Literature. To examine critically so as to bring out the essential elements, or give the essence of (a treatise or any part of it).
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheomast., II. xiii. § 2. 350. Logicke teacheth the Preacher, to Analize and diuide his Text.
1646. Burd. Issachar, in Phenix (1708), II. 264. The first analyseth, interpreteth, and taketh away the doubts of his Text.
1815. Moore, Veiled Proph., Epil. (1824), 126. He then proceeded to analyse the poem.
1868. Arber, Milton’s Areop., Introd. Its [a book’s] contents may be analysed as to their intrinsic truthfulness or falsity.
7. Gram. To distinguish the grammatical elements of a word, phrase or sentence; esp. (since 1852) To resolve a sentence into elements performing distinct functions in the expression of thought.
1724. [See ANALYSIS 6.]
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 88, ¶ 2. The employment … of analysing lines into syllables.
1857. Morell, Eng. Gram., 81. Method of Analysing Simple Sentences.
1870. Daily News, 16 April, 6/5. She will take rhetoric, algebra, and French, and also attempt to ‘analyse’ Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ into subjects and predicates.
