analysis
careful breaking apart to understand
Root
- lyein / lysis: loosen, untie, or dissolve
Other words with the lyein / lysis root
- catalyst: something that causes or speeds change
Analysis keeps the lysis image: loosen a whole into pieces so understanding can begin.
Her analysis found the weak assumption in the second paragraph.
Analysis is familiar, but it carries an old lysis image: loosening or breaking a whole apart so its pieces can be seen. That same lysis family helps catalyst through catalysis.