Etymology

devil's advocate

Today it means: One who debates from a viewpoint which one may not actually hold, usually to determine its validity or simply for the sake of argument. Full definition →

Latin advocātus diabolī
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The story

  1. Latin · calque ofadvocātus diabolī“the devil’s advocate”
  2. English todaydevil's advocate

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.