Analysis contains the notion of undoing or loosening so that component parts are separated and reveled. It led to the development of the verb analyze around 1600.
So it speaks of the separation of a whole into its component parts and to examine the parts to better understand the whole. It speaks of the examination of a complex its parts and their relations.
It can also be a statement of the constituents of a mixture.
To analyze is to study or determine the nature and relationship of the parts by analysis. So, to subject to scientific or grammatical analysis.
An analysis then may be the separation of an intellectual or substantial whole into its constituent parts for individual study.
And analyze is to separate into elemental parts or basic principles so as to determine the nature of the whole.
So when as a child I took apart the old alarm clock to see what made it tick, I was doing a sort of analysis. I not only destroyed it, I also analyzed it.
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