[194] DIA

Diæresis to have been; or certain natural passages are dilated beyond their ordinary dimensions, so that the humours which ought to have been contained in the vessels extravasate or run out.

DIÆRESIS, in Grammar, the division of one syllable into two, which is usually noted by two points over a letter, as aulai, instead of aula, dissolvienda for dissolvenda.

DIÆTETÆ, in Grecian antiquity, a kind of judges, of which there were two sorts, the cleroti and diallacterii. The former were public arbitrators, chosen by lot to determine all causes exceeding ten drachms, within their own tribe, and from their sentence an appeal lay to the superior courts.

The diallacterii, on the contrary, were private arbitrators, from whose sentence there lay no appeal, and accordingly they always took an oath to administer justice without partiality.