An analyst [ān'e-lĭst] is the title of a junior employee at a financial/consulting firm. The exact origin of the word is under contention- some etymologists believe it is derived from the Sanskrit verb annalisna (“to be trapped in a cave”), while others believe the word comes from the name Al-Analyziq, a town square in medieval Damascus where twenty-two year olds would frequently gather to complain about their jobs.
Analysts first began appearing during the 11th Century in what is modern day Istanbul; traders and businessmen began dumping work on their subordinates, and then ran to the fields where they would tell jokes and eat figs. It was only around the 13th Century that it became popular to give analysts unreasonable and unnecessary work. According to a story told by famous medieval Turkish soothsayer (and former analyst) Iskubee Du, “…when I was an analyst, my first assignment was to handwrite a full report of Turkish military strength by nightfall the same day. There was only one problem- I was illiterate.”
When the concept of an 'analyst' was still in its infancy, bosses across the medieval world searched for creative ways in which they could use these talented individuals. One of the more popular tasks assigned to analysts during the 14th - 15th Centuries was taste-checking food for deadly poisons. While this practice has (for the most part) been discontinued, analysts are generally still forced to drink Flavia coffee (See separate entry below).
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