Wiktionary

demon

See also: démon, dēmon, dêmon, demön, and Demon

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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For quotations using this term, see Citations:demon.

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Saint Anthony the Great being tormented by demons in The Torment of Saint Anthony, by Michelangelo (c. 1487).

From Middle English demon, a borrowing from Medieval Latin dēmōn, daemōn (“lar, familiar spirit, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). Doublet of daimon.

Alternative forms

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Noun

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demon (plural demons)

  1. An evil supernatural spirit.
    1. An evil spirit resident in or working for Hell; a devil. [from 10th c.]
      • 2007 December 2, April D. DeConick, “What the Gospel of Judas really says”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 November 2011, Essay‎[2]:
        So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the "Thirteenth." In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons - an entity known as Ialdabaoth who lives in the 13th realm above the earth. Judas is his human alter ego, his undercover agent in the world. These Gnostics equated Ialdabaoth with the Hebrew Yahweh, whom they saw as a jealous and wrathful deity and an opponent of the supreme God whom Jesus came to earth to reveal.
        Whoever wrote the Gospel of Judas was a harsh critic of mainstream Christianity and its rituals. Because Judas is a demon working for Ialdabaoth, the author believed, when Judas sacrifices Jesus he does so to the demons, not to the supreme God. This mocks mainstream Christians' belief in the atoning value of Jesus' death and in the effectiveness of the Eucharist.
    2. (now chiefly historical) A false god or idol; a Satanic divinity. [from 10th c.]
    3. A very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child. [from 16th c.]
    4. A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw. [from 17th c.]
      The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth.
    5. (in the plural) A person's fears or anxieties. [from 19th c.]
      • 2013 January 21, The Guardian:
        After a short spell on an adult psychiatric ward, she decided to find her own way to deal with her demons.
  2. A neutral supernatural spirit.
    1. A person's inner spirit or genius; a guiding or creative impulse. [from 14th c.]
    2. (Greek mythology) A tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly guided Socrates, telling him what not to do. [from 16th c.]
    3. A spirit not considered to be inherently evil; a (non-Christian) deity or supernatural being. [from 19th c.]
    4. A hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics.
      • 1874, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, “Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy” in Nature 9, 441-444:
        Let the orders now be that each demon is to stop all molecules from crossing his area in either direction except 100 coming from A, arbitrarily chosen to be let pass into B, and a greater number, having among them less energy but equal momentum, to cross from B to A.
  3. Someone with great strength, passion or skill for a particular activity, pursuit etc.; an enthusiast. [from 19th c.]
    He’s a demon at the card tables.
    • 2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian‎[3]:
      Chelsea defended like demons to snuff out Manchester City but this was a perfectly calibrated triumph, built upon a structured attacking approach, choosing the right moments to transition, and illuminated by the smoothness of Havertz’s technique.
  4. (card games) A type of patience or solitaire (card game) played in the UK and/or US. [from 19th c.]
    Coordinate term: Canfield
    • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 89:
      ‘That's much the best feeling to have.’ She dealt out the first row of ‘demon’.
  5. Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genera Notocrypta and Udaspes.
Usage notes
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Meanings drawing on the neutral, ancient Greek conception now often distinguish themselves by the variant spellings daimon or daemon.

Synonyms
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Hyponyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

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From distinct electron motion +‎ -on.

Noun

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demon (plural demons)

  1. (physics) Acronym of distinct electron motion particle: A quasiparticle, a type of massless neutral electron excitation associated with superconductivity.
Synonyms
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Hypernyms
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Further reading

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Etymology 3

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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From Maxwell's demon; a derivation from “disk and execution monitor” is generally considered a backronym.

Alternative forms

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Noun

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demon (plural demons)

  1. (computing) Alternative spelling of daemon

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Etymology

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From Latin daemon (“lar, genius, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈdeː.mɔn/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: de‧mon

Noun

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demon m (plural demonen or demons)

  1. genius, lar
  2. (uncommon) demon
    Synonyms: demoon, duivel

Finnish

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Noun

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demon

  1. genitive singular of demo

Anagrams

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Latin

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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dēmon m

  1. accusative singular of dēmos

Middle English

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Etymology

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From Medieval Latin dēmōn, daemōn, from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn). Doublet of tyme (“time”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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demon (plural demones)

  1. demon, devil, malicious spirit
  2. (rare) daimon, helpful spirit

Descendants

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  • English: demon

References

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology

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Borrowed from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn).

Noun

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demon m (definite singular demonen, indefinite plural demoner, definite plural demonene)

  1. a demon

Derived terms

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References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology

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Borrowed from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn).

Noun

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demon m (definite singular demonen, indefinite plural demonar, definite plural demonane)

  1. a demon

Derived terms

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References

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Old Irish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Latin daemōn, from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn), though the plural seems to be from daemonia, the plural of the diminutive daemonium.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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demon m (genitive demuin, nominative plural demna)

  1. demon, devil
  2. the Devil
    • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 9d24
      arna dich cách assa dligud i n-adaltras tri láthar demuin et tri bar nebcongabthetit-si
      lest everyone go out of his duty into adultery through the Devil’s machination and through your incontinence

Declension

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Masculine o-stem
singular dual plural
nominative demon, demun demonL, demun demnaL
vocative demuin demonL, demun demnuH
accusative demonN, demun demonL, demun demnaiH
genitive demuinL demon, demun demonN, demun, demneN
dative demonL, demun demnaib, demnib demnaib, demnib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

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Mutation

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Mutation of demon
radical lenition nasalization
demon demon
pronounced with /ð(ʲ)-/ 		ndemon

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

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  1. ^ Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, § 280, page 178; reprinted 2017

Further reading

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Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl
 
Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin daemon (“lar, genius, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). Sense 2 is a semantic loan from English daemon.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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demon m animal

  1. (mythology, religion) demon (evil supernatural spirit)
  3. (computing) daemon (running program that does not have a controlling terminal)

Declension

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Declension of demon
singular plural
nominative demon demony
genitive demona demonów
dative demonowi demonom
accusative demona demony
instrumental demonem demonami
locative demonie demonach
vocative demonie demony

Derived terms

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adjective
adverb
nouns
verbs

Further reading

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  • demon in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • demon in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

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Alternative forms

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  • dimon — regional, Moldova

Etymology

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Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic демонъ (demonŭ), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn). Compare also Aromanian demun.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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demon m (plural demoni)

  1. demon
  2. (figuratively) a despicable person

Declension

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Declension of demon
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative demon demonul demoni demonii
genitive-dative demon demonului demoni demonilor
vocative demonule demonilor

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Greek δαίμονας (daímonas).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /děmoːn/
  • Hyphenation: de‧mon

Noun

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dèmōn m (Cyrillic spelling дѐмо̄н)

  1. demon

Declension

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Declension of demon
singular plural
nominative dèmōn demoni
genitive demóna demona
dative demonu demonima
accusative demona demone
vocative demone demoni
locative demonu demonima
instrumental demonom demonima

Derived terms

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Swedish

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Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn).

Noun

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demon c

  1. a demon (evil spirit)
  2. (Greek mythology) a demon (neutral spirit)
  3. (in the plural) a demon (personification of anxiety and the like)
    kämpa mot sina inre demoner
    fight one's inner demons

Declension

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Declension of demon
nominative genitive
singular indefinite demon demons
definite demonen demonens
plural indefinite demoner demoners
definite demonerna demonernas
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See also

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  • jävel (used in the sense of being a demon at something)

References

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