reanalyze
English
Etymology
re- + analyze
Verb
reanalyze (third-person singular simple present reanalyzes, present participle reanalyzing, simple past and past participle reanalyzed)
- (American spelling) to analyze again
- (linguistics) Analyze a lexeme with a different structure from its original, often by misunderstanding. For example, hamburger, which is originally Hamburg + -er, was reanalyzed as ham + -burger, which produced words like cheeseburger.
- 2006, Shaligram Shukla and Jeff Connor-Linton, “Language change”, in Ralph Fasold and Jeff Connor-Linton, editors, An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 296:
- Thus hamburger (whose true etymology is 'city of Hamburg' + er 'someone from') has been reanalyzed as ham + burger 'burger made with ham.'
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Alternative forms
- reanalyse
Derived terms
- reanalysis