diagnostic, a. and n.
(daɪəgˈnɒstɪk)
[ad. Gr. διαγνωστικός able to distinguish, ἡ διαγνωστική (sc. τέχνη) the art of distinguishing diseases, f. διαγιγνώσκειν: see diagnosis. Cf. F. diagnostique (17th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to diagnosis.
| 1625 Hart Anat. Ur. i. i. 13 Physicke diagnosticke or semioticke..teacheth vs to know the nature..of the disease by the signes..of the same. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 46 The Diagnostick and disease-discovering Part. 1775 Sir E. Barry Observ. Wines 394 The diagnostic knowledge..of these symptoms. 1884 E. Sheppard in Law Times 4 Oct. 373/2 The judgment and diagnostic skill of the..medical practitioner. |
2. Of value for purposes of diagnosis, discrimination, or identification; specifically characteristic, distinctive:
a. in
Med.;
b. in
Biol.;
c. gen.| a. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 4 As to the signes Diagnostick, a vitious figure of the head is known by sight. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 306 The Diagnostick Signs of a Dog truly mad. 1885 Lancet 26 Sept. 562 The most important diagnostic signs of pleural effusion. |
| b. 1862 Sir H. Holland Ess., Life & Organization 79 The teeth..so important a diagnostic mark. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 124 The brief characters which..distinguish these species from each other are said to be diagnostic. 1875 Buckland Log-bk. 244 Much has been said as to the tail being a diagnostic mark between the wild and tame cat. |
| c. 1669 Address Yng. Gentry Eng. 17 Necessary aphorisms to regulate their own lives by, and be diagnostic of all others. 1803 Edin. Rev. I. 256 note, The self-reviewing philosophy would have been a term more diagnostic. 1888 Pall Mall G. 28 Apr. 11/2 The Times cannot regard the Mid Lanark election as possessing any particular diagnostic value. |
3. Computing. Of a program or sub-routine: designed to identify program errors or system faults and give information about them.
| [1950 W. W. Stifler et al. High-Speed Computing Devices xvii. 437 In the computer proposed by the Raytheon Company, self-checking and diagnostic equipment is provided throughout.] 1953 Proc. IRE XLI. 1320/1 We discuss the use of three types of diagnostic and servicing programs which enable us to use the computer to diagnose its own troubles. 1967 A. Battersby Network Analysis (ed. 2) viii. 140 Diagnostic routines are able to detect obvious errors in the input and print out comments on them—i think i have a loop is one. 1985 Sci. Amer. July 13/1 This program, which will run only in the graphics mode, is diagnostic. |
B. n.; sometimes in
collect. pl. diagnostics.
1. = diagnosis 1.
| 1625 Hart Anat. Ur. i. ii. 13 Diagnosticke whose most common scope is to discerne..the sick and infirme from the whole. 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 94, I fear the Doctor mistakes in his diagnosticks. 1753 N. Torriano Gangr. Sore Throat 10 From this Appearance of the Blood, no Diagnostic can be formed of the Disease. 1803 Med. Jrnl. IX. 126 The disease, the diagnostic of which he found difficult to determine. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 530 Radcliffe..had raised himself to the first practice in London chiefly by his rare skill in diagnostics. |
| fig. 1769 Burke Late St. Nat. Wks. 1842 I. 89 The false diagnostick of our state physician. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. (1892) I. ix. 335 May be described as a system of religious diagnostics. |
2. A distinctive symptom or characteristic, a specific trait:
a. in
Med. b. Biol. and
gen.| a. 1651 Wittie Primrose's Pop. Err. 225 That Physitian..having fully found out the diagnosticks, and prognosticks of a disease. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) II. lvii. 158 From these diagnostics [the physician] declared that the liquidum nervosum was intimately affected. 1764 Reid Inquiry vi. §23. 194 An unusual appearance in the colour of familiar objects may be the diagnostic of a disease in the spectator. 1853 Reade Chr. Johnstone 15 You have the maladies of idle minds, love, perhaps, among the rest; you blush, a diagnostic of that disorder. |
| b. 1646 S. Bolton Arraignm. Err. 144 What are the Diagnosticks or marks whereby we may..discern of errour from truth. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) VII. ix. 53 Oaths, and curses, the diagnostics of the rakish spirit. 1818 Blackw. Mag. II. 404 The diagnostics (if so technical a term may be allowed) of his conduct, deportment, and conversation. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1828) IV. xlvii. 405 We cannot point out any certain diagnostic. |
3. Computing. A message produced by a computer that helps a user to identify an error or malfunction. Also, a facility or routine for producing such a message. Usu. in
pl.| 1963 P. M. Sherman Programming & coding Digital Computers xix. 404 Following is a partial list of the comments (called diagnostics) provided by Fortran during a compilation. Ibid. 405 A number of these diagnostics would apply to any algebraic-language program. 1964 Fisher & Swindle Introd. Computer Programming Syst. i. i. 4 Programming systems..employ extensive error diagnostics, which check for and announce both clerical and logical errors. 1973 C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. iv. 160 If the programmer attempts to assign a value of B(I) in an assignment statement, the compiler will detect an error at the time it translates that statement and produce a diagnostic that says something about incorrect usage of functions. 1985 Computing Equipment Sept. 27/3 (Advt.), Operation of the network is completely automatic and supported by full diagnostics. |
______________________________
Sense B. 3 in
Dict. becomes B. 4. Add:
[B.] 3. Physics. A method or technique used in plasma diagnostics; in
collect. pl. = plasma diagnostics s.v. *
plasma n. 8 a.
| 1962 Jrnl. Appl. Physics XXXIII. 2868 Errors in the microwave diagnostics of plasmas were investigated with the use of dielectric and conducting models. 1965 R. H. Huddlestone in Huddlestone & Leonard Plasma Diagnostic Techniques i. 6 Chapter 10, ‘Optical Interferometry’, treats space- and time-resolved interferometry and its applications to diagnostics of plasmas with electron concentrations greater than a few times 1014 electrons per cm3. 1979 Nature 14 June 626/1 The ion temperature deduced by the magnitude of the neutron emission has been consistent with other PLT ion temperature diagnostic[s] such as charge exchange spectral observations. Ibid. 22 Nov. 366/1 It will now be possible to study this quiescence phase in detail with modern diagnostics and hence to assess the potential of the reversed field system. |