among physicians, signifies the dilatation of the heart, auricles, and arteries; and stands opposed to the systole, or contraction of the same parts. See ANATOMY Index.

in Grammar, a figure in profody whereby a syllable naturally short is made long. Such is the first syllable of Priamides in the following verse of Virgil:

Atque hic Priamides! nihil tibi, amice, reliquit.

DIAASYRMUS, in Rhetoric, a kind of hyperbole, being an exaggeration of some low, ridiculous thing.