dia-, di-

Devil's advocate.

This term is generally used to describe someone who takes the unpopular (opposite) side in an argument (either out of contentiousness or out of a zeal for the truth).

This epithet originally applied to the Vatican official charged with finding objections to beatification or canonization; or, in other words, it was his responsibility to argue against the sainthood of a candidate who is being considered.

Since the 16th century, this individual's title has been promotor fidei, "promotor of the faith" as expressed in the Catholic Encyclopedia which clarifies his function as follows: "The seemingly negative work of the promoter of the faith undoubtedly has a great positive value, in as much as it prevents the Church from pronouncing a certain and favorable judgment on the life and works of a person without possessing unquestionable proof."

Absence of the secretion or flow of breast milk.

Direct visual inspection of blood vessels of the extremities, a light being held behind the part.

1. The obliteration of blood vessels with diathermy.
2. The therapeutic generation of local heat in body tissues by high-frequency electromagnetic currents.

Indifference to one’s own disease.

through; across

1. Very wicked or evil; fiendish.
2. Showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil, or Satan.
3. Having the qualities of a devil; devilish; fiendish; outrageously wicked; such as, a diabolic plot.

A name for the science of refracted sounds.

1. Serving to distinguish or able to distinguish; said of a mark or symbol to show pronunciation.
2. Indicating a change or modification in something; especially, in the way a printed letter is to be pronounced or stressed.
3. Capable of distinguishing, discerning, or showing a capacity for discerning.