analogy

analogy in biology, the similarities in function, but differences in evolutionary origin, of body structures in different organisms. For example, the wing of a bird is analogous to the wing of an insect, since both are used for flight. However, there is no common ancestral origin in the evolution of these structures: While the wings of birds are modified skeletal forelimbs, insect wings are extensions of the body wall. Although insects and birds do have a very remote common ancestry (more than 600 million years ago), the wings of the two groups evolved after their ancestries had separated. See also homology .

analogy proportion XV; similarity, parallelism XVII. — (O)F. analogie or L. analogia — Gr. analogíā equality of ratios, f. análogos (see prec.).
So analogic XVII, analogical XVI.

analogy Analogies, much employed in the Bible, are a means of reasoning by the use of parallel cases, and ‘analogy’ is therefore an umbrella term covering similes, metaphors, typology, and allegory. Thus Paul refers to Christ as a ‘rock’ (1 Cor. 10: 4), where he uses the account in Num. 20: 11 of the gushing of water out of a rock. The Jews of the 1st cent. CE believed that this supernatural rock somehow accompanied the Israelites on their journeyings through the wilderness together with the numinous cloud. So Paul applies this belief by analogy to Christ as the rock who gives life to his people. An analogy between sleep and death is found in 1 Thess. 5: 10.

For the medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas the concept of analogy was fundamental as being an intelligible means of referring to the relationships between God and mankind; there are attributes of God which are similar to but not identical with those of human beings, as when we talk of the love of God.