Dictionary

daemon en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈdiː.mən/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. A minor deity or divinity.
   • 2018, Carolyn Graves-Brown, Daemons and Spirits in Ancient Egypt, University of Wales Press, page 46, On some apotropaic wands the hippopotamus daemon bites or devours a person.⁸⁸ On a well-known New Kingdom papyrus, Taweret, who is named, is listed amongst evil daemons.
2. A muse, a personified source of inspiration, especially one that also causes anguish.
   • 2015, Harold Bloom, The Daemon Knows, Penguin Random House (Random House), eBook edition, unnumbered page, Coleridge, deep in daemons, looked to them for his poetic power: They gave him Kubla Khan, Christabel, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He welcomed his daemon or genius and yet feared it.
   • That is why those of exceptionally "daemonic temperament", those who cannot early and thoroughly subdue the daemon within them, are racked by disquietude. Ever and again the daemon snatches the helm from their control and steers them (helpless as straws in the blast) into the heart of the storm, perchance to shatter them on the rocks of destiny. 2012, Stefan Zweig, translated by Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche, Pushkin Press, unnumbered page:
3. An idea depicted as an entity.
4. (alt-of, archaic) Archaic spelling of demon.
   alt of demon

Forms

Deriveds

daemonology · daemonism

Relateds

cacodaemoniacal · genius · cacodaemonic · eudaemon · daimon · daemonic · tutelary deity · cacodaemon · cacodemonic · muse · cacodemon · agathodaemon

daemon en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈdiːmən/
• /ˈdeɪmən/

Etymology

A reference to Maxwell's demon. The putative derivation from "disk and execution monitor" is generally considered a backronym.

Meanings

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

Forms

Relateds

background process

Translations (17)

fr daemon (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · ga daeman (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · fi daemoni (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · fr démon (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · uk де́мон (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · fi palveluprosessi (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · pl demon (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · cs démon (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · ru де́мон (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · tr artalan süreci (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · sv demon (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · fi taustaprosessi (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · es demonio (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · el δαίμονας (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · el δαίμων (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · ja デーモン (computing: process with no controlling terminal) · de Hintergrundprogramm (computing: process with no controlling terminal)

wikipedia: Maxwell's demon