daemon

See also: Dämon and dæmon

English

Etymology 1

A borrowing of Latin daemōn (“tutelary deity”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, tutelary deity”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdiː.mən/
• Rhymes: -iːmən
• Hyphenation: dae‧mon

Noun

daemon (plural daemons or daemones)

1. An idea depicted as an entity.
2. (uncommon) Alternative form of demon.

Derived terms

• daemonology

Related terms

• agathodaemon
• cacodaemon/cacodemon; cacodaemonic/cacodemonic; cacodaemoniacal
• daemonic
• daimon
• eudaemon

Etymology 2

From Maxwell's demon; a derivation from “disk and execution monitor” is generally considered a backronym.

Alternative forms

• dæmon, daimon, demon

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdiːmən/, /ˈdeɪmən/
• Rhymes: -iːmən, -eɪmən
• Hyphenation: dae‧mon

Noun

daemon (plural daemons)

1. (computing, Unix) A process (a running program) that does not have a controlling terminal.

Usage notes

• (Unix): Often a daemon will be a server.

Translations

computing: a process that does not have a controlling terminal

• Czech: démon (cs) m
• Finnish: taustaprosessi, palveluprosessi, daemoni
• French: démon (fr) m (ISO/IEC 2382-28:1995)
• German: Hintergrundprogramm n
• Greek: δαίμων (el) m (daímon), δαίμονας (el) m (daímonas)
• Irish: daeman m
• Japanese: デーモン (dēmon)
• Russian: де́мон (ru) m (démon)
• Spanish: demonio (es) m
• Swedish: demon (sv) c
• Turkish: artalan süreci (tr)
• Ukrainian: де́мон m (démon)

See also

• background process

Anagrams

• Modane, Modena, moaned, modena, nomade

Japanese

Romanization

daemon

1. Rōmaji transcription of ダエモン

Latin

Alternative forms

• demon (Medieval Latin)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈdae̯.moːn/, [ˈd̪äe̯moːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈde.mon/, [ˈd̪ɛːmon]

Noun

daemōn m (genitive daemonis); third declension

1. a genius loci, a lar, the protective spirit or godling of a place or household
2. (astrology) the 11th of the 12 signs of the zodiac
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) a demon
   • 1633, Johannes de Laet, Novus orbis seu descriptionis Indiæ occidentalis, Libri XVIII, page 642:

     […] perſuadent enim ſe crebro cum dæmone ſermones ſerere, quem Wattipam nominant, & res geſtas in longinquis regionibus ab ipſo edoceri, nec non futuras præmoneri: agnoſcunt autem hunc ſpiritum malum eſſe; neque injuria, nam haud raro miſerum in modum ab ipſo flagellantur.

     For they persuade themselves that they often hold conversations with a demon whom they call Wattipa, and that they are informed by him of things done in distant regions, and indeed foreshown things to be: but they acknowledge that this spirit is evil; and not without reason, for not infrequently they are scourged by him in a miserable manner.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	daemōn	daemonēs
Genitive	daemonis	daemonum
Dative	daemonī	daemonibus
Accusative	daemonem daemona	daemonēs daemonas
Ablative	daemone	daemonibus
Vocative	daemōn	daemonēs

Derived terms

• daemonicus

Related terms

• daemonium
• cacodemon
• calodemon

Descendants

• → Albanian: djemën
• Aromanian: demun
• → Catalan: dèmon (learned)
• → English: daemon, demon
• Galician: demo
• → German: Dämon
• → Old Irish: demon, demun
  • Irish: deamhan
  • Scottish Gaelic: deamhan
• Italian: demone
• Portuguese: demo, demónio/demônio
• Translingual: Felis daemon

References

• “daemon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• daemon in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• daemon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “daemon”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[1]
• “daemon”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers