devil's advocate

English

WOTD – 12 December 2011

Etymology

Calque of Latin advocātus diabolī (“the devil’s advocate”), a popular title given to the officer dealing with the canonization process in the 16th c.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

devil's advocate (plural devil's advocates)

1. (idiomatic) One who debates from a viewpoint which one may not actually hold, usually to determine its validity or simply for the sake of argument.

   I don't really believe all that – I was just playing devil's advocate.

   • 1985, Albert Brooks, Lost in America (motion picture), spoken by David Howard (Albert Brooks):

     Now, play devil's advocate. Can't you live 20 years on $145,000 if you're living out of a motor home and just eating and painting and writing books? I mean, this is what we talked about when we were 19. Remember, we kept saying, "Let's find ourselves," but we didn't have a dollar! So, we watched television instead.

2. (historical, Roman Catholicism) A canon lawyer appointed by the Church to argue against the canonization of the proposed candidate.

Translations

debater

• Arabic: مُحَامِي الشَّيْطَان m (muḥāmī š-šayṭān)
• Catalan: advocat del diable m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 惡魔的代言人／恶魔的代言人 (èmó de dàiyánrén), 魔鬼的訟辯人／魔鬼的讼辩人 (móguǐ de sòngbiànrén)

• Czech: ďáblův advokát m
• Danish: djævelens advokat c
• Dutch: advocaat van de duivel
• Finnish: paholaisen asianajaja
• French: avocat du diable (fr) m
• German: des Teufels Advokat m, Advocatus Diaboli (de)
• Greek: συνήγορος του διαβόλου (el) m or f (synígoros tou diavólou), δικηγόρος του διαβόλου m or f (dikigóros tou diavólou)
• Hungarian: az ördög ügyvédje
• Italian: avvocato del diavolo m
• Japanese: 悪魔の代弁者 (あくまのだいべんしゃ, akuma no daibensha)
• Korean: 악마의 변호인 (angmaui byeonhoin)
• Norwegian: djevelens advokat m
• Polish: adwokat diabła (pl) m, promotor wiary (pl) m
• Portuguese: advogado do diabo (pt) m
• Romanian: avocatul diavolului
• Russian: адвока́т дья́вола (ru) m (advokát dʹjávola)
• Spanish: abogado del diablo m
• Swedish: djävulens advokat c
• Tagalog: sugo ng diyablo
• Ukrainian: адвока́т дия́вола m (advokát dyjávola)

canon lawyer

• Catalan: advocat del diable m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 列聖審查官／列圣审查官 (lièshèng shěncháguān)

• Czech: ďáblův advokát m
• Danish: djævelens advokat c
• Finnish: paholaisen asianajaja
• German: des Teufels Advokat m, Advocatus Diaboli (de)
• Greek: συνήγορος του διαβόλου (el) m or f (synígoros tou diavólou)
• Hebrew: פרקליט השטן m (praklít hasatán)
• Italian: avvocato del diavolo m
• Japanese: 列聖調査審問検事 (れっせいちょうさしんもんけんじ, ressei chōsa shinmon kenji)
• Latin: advocatus diaboli m
• Norwegian: djevelens advokat m
• Polish: adwokat diabła (pl) m
• Portuguese: advogado do diabo (pt) m
• Romanian: avocatul diavolului m
• Russian: адвока́т дья́вола (ru) m (advokát dʹjávola)
• Spanish: abogado del diablo m
• Tagalog: sugo ng diyablo

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} avocat du diable (fr)
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} velnio advokatas
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} vražji odvjetnik m

Verb

devil's advocate (third-person singular simple present devil's advocates, present participle devil's advocating, simple past and past participle devil's advocated)

1. (intransitive, informal) To play devil's advocate.
   • 2006 September 27, bwross, “Crawl-SS: Weapon & armor changes”, in rec.games.roguelike.misc‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Disclaimer: people shouldn't take things I say too personally, I'm often a bit blunt and like to devil's advocate and debate things (another part of this is that I've typically not bothered to post on things that are correct, but to correct things when they're wrong... if you take everything I don't respond to as an affirmation, I'm extremely nice:)

   • 2008 May 20, Carl, “Woman: 'I can't go against what it says in the Bible'”, in alt.atheism‎^[2] (Usenet):

     I don't want to get bogged down devil's-advocating for a position I don't personally hold (I think a government worker should not be allowed to bring religious beliefs into the job, just to be clear), but her position is a little different than the absolute you're making it into.

Further reading

• “devil's advocate”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• devil's advocate on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Advocatus Diaboli in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)