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Lynn Saler

Difference between the terms “analyte” and “analyate” and their applicability

Chaim Israel  Follow

The unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, available by subscription, is the ultimate source to confirm the usages of English words. I checked the word "analyate" and it does not exist in the entire dictionary. The word analyte is also very recent (mid 1950s). I am not surprised that wrong spellings are published in high-end journals. If you study the statistics of wrong references, that is even more shocking. How many times it has happened that you check a citation and it turns out that the citation never mentioned anything like that.

Here is an excerpt from the OED

Origin: Apparently formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: analyse v., -lyte comb. form. Etymology: Apparently < ana- (in analyse v.) + -lyte comb. form, perhaps after electrolyte n. Chemistry. Categories »

A substance that is analysed or determined, esp. quantitatively.

1955 C. M. Crawford in Chem. & Engin. News 5 Dec. 5262/2 There is not, as far as I am aware, any short word denoting ‘the substance being analysed for’ in use... My proposal is that the word ‘analyte’ be understood to convey the above meaning.

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Emmanuel Simiyu  Follow
Yep, I also got a similar idea by looking at the More
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Edible History  Follow
for both terms. "Analyate" isnt a known term, but there is a little change its been used so rarely Google classifies it as an outlier.More
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Jeffrey Werbock  Follow
Google NgramMore
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