the division of logic which distinguishes good from bad arguments, 1590s, from Latin analytica from Greek analytika, from stem of analyein "unloose, release, set free," from ana "up, back, throughout" (see ana-) + lysis "a loosening," from lyein "to unfasten" (from PIE root *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart"); also see -ics. Ta Analytika was the name of Aristotle's treatises on logic.