devil's advocate

English

Wikipedia

WOTD – 12 December 2011    

Etymology

devil +‎ 's +‎ advocate, a calque of Latin advocātus diabolī (“the devil’s advocate”).

Noun

devil’s advocate (plural devil’s advocates)

1. (idiomatic) One who debates from a view which he or she may not actually hold, usually to determine its validity or simply for the sake of argument.
2. (Roman Catholic Church) A canon lawyer appointed by the Church to argue against the canonization of the proposed candidate.

Translations

debater

• Arabic: محامي الشيطان (ar) m
• Catalan: advocat del diable (ca) m
• Czech: ďáblův advokát (cs) m
• Danish: djævelens advokat c
• Dutch: advocaat van de duivel
• Finnish: paholaisen asianajaja
• French: avocat du diable (fr) m
• German: des Teufel (de)s Advokat (de) m, Advocatus Diaboli (de)
• Greek: συνήγορος του διαβόλου (el) (synígoros tou diavólou) m and f

• Italian: avvocato del diavolo (it) m
• Japanese: 悪魔の代弁者 (ja) (akuma no daibensha), あまのじゃく (ja) (amanojaku)
• Norwegian: djevelens advokat m
• Portuguese: advogado do diabo (pt) m
• Russian: адвокат дьявола (ru) (advokát d'jávola) m
• Spanish: abogado del diablo (es)
• Swedish: djävulens advokat (sv) c

canon lawyer

• Catalan: advocat del diable (ca) m
• Czech: ďáblův advokát (cs) m
• Danish: djævelens advokat c
• Finnish: paholaisen asianajaja
• German: des Teufel (de)s Advokat (de) m, Advocatus Diaboli (de)
• Greek: συνήγορος του διαβόλου (el) (synígoros tou diavólou) m and f

• Italian: avvocato del diavolo (it) m
• Japanese: 列聖調査審問検事 (ja) (ressei chōsa shinmon kenji)
• Latin: advocatus diaboli (la)
• Norwegian: djevelens advokat m
• Polish: adwokat diabła (pl) m
• Russian: адвокат дьявола (ru) (advokát d'jávola) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Serbo-Croatian: vražji odvjetnik
• French: avocat du diable
• Hebrew: פרקליט השטן

• Lithuanian: velnio advokatas
• Spanish: abogado del diablo m
• Ukrainian: адвокат диявола