Words in their Historical Context: Analysts in 1819
Today the word analyst conjures two images.
The first image is popular culture's take on Freudian psychology. The psychoanalyst sits in a chair notebook in hand, while the patient lies on a couch, relating concerns. We see it in cartoons, movies, sit-coms, but not in 1819.
The second image takes its clue from government intelligence gathering: the lonely analyst surrounded by books, and papers, staring at a computer screen, searching for patterns in discrete bits of data.
And strangely, this second image (minus the computer) is appropriate for 1819.
The word analyst grew out of 17th-century mathematical publications addressing algebraic geometry. In 1656, Thomas Hobbes in his Elements of philosophy the first section, concerning body, to which are added Six lessons to the professors of mathematicks of the Institution of Sr. Henry Savile, in the University of Oxford wrote that "The Analyst [who] can solve these Problemes without knowing first the length of the arch...shall do more than ordinary Geometry is able to perform" (OED). And this sense continues today.
But within a century, the word's meaning broadens to include any person who approaches a subject or situation, analytically. In 1753 A supplement to Mr. Chambers's Cyclopædia defines an analyst as "a person who analyzes a thing, or makes use of the analytical method" (OED). Coleridge uses the word in this sense in 1809 essay The Friend: "Some pleasant Analyst of Taste" (OED). And by 1851, Herbert Spencer in his work on social theory, Social Statics uses the term to describe the special observational capacity of the analyst: "Unobserved, perhaps, by the many, but sufficiently visible to the analyst" (OED).
By the mid-1850s, the term becomes frequently associated with adjectives like 'military analyst,' 'political analyst,' etc (OED).
So, in 1819, you can't recline on a couch and tell your troubles to your analyst, but you can think long and hard about a subject until you see all its secrets laid bare.
The first image is popular culture's take on Freudian psychology. The psychoanalyst sits in a chair notebook in hand, while the patient lies on a couch, relating concerns. We see it in cartoons, movies, sit-coms, but not in 1819.
The second image takes its clue from government intelligence gathering: the lonely analyst surrounded by books, and papers, staring at a computer screen, searching for patterns in discrete bits of data.
And strangely, this second image (minus the computer) is appropriate for 1819.
The word analyst grew out of 17th-century mathematical publications addressing algebraic geometry. In 1656, Thomas Hobbes in his Elements of philosophy the first section, concerning body, to which are added Six lessons to the professors of mathematicks of the Institution of Sr. Henry Savile, in the University of Oxford wrote that "The Analyst [who] can solve these Problemes without knowing first the length of the arch...shall do more than ordinary Geometry is able to perform" (OED). And this sense continues today.
But within a century, the word's meaning broadens to include any person who approaches a subject or situation, analytically. In 1753 A supplement to Mr. Chambers's Cyclopædia defines an analyst as "a person who analyzes a thing, or makes use of the analytical method" (OED). Coleridge uses the word in this sense in 1809 essay The Friend: "Some pleasant Analyst of Taste" (OED). And by 1851, Herbert Spencer in his work on social theory, Social Statics uses the term to describe the special observational capacity of the analyst: "Unobserved, perhaps, by the many, but sufficiently visible to the analyst" (OED).
By the mid-1850s, the term becomes frequently associated with adjectives like 'military analyst,' 'political analyst,' etc (OED).
So, in 1819, you can't recline on a couch and tell your troubles to your analyst, but you can think long and hard about a subject until you see all its secrets laid bare.
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