daemon
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Demon \De"mon\, n. [F. d['e]mon, L. daemon a spirit, an evil
spirit, fr. Gr. dai`mwn a divinity; of uncertain origin.]
1. (Gr. Antiq.) A spirit, or immaterial being, holding a
middle place between men and deities in pagan mythology.
[1913 Webster]
The demon kind is of an intermediate nature between
the divine and the human. --Sydenham.
[1913 Webster]
2. One's genius; a tutelary spirit or internal voice; as, the
demon of Socrates. [Often written {d[ae]mon}.]
[1913 Webster]
3. An evil spirit; a devil.
[1913 Webster]
That same demon that hath gulled thee thus. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
daemon
/day'mn/, /dee'mn/, n.
[from Maxwell's Demon, later incorrectly retronymed as `Disk And
Execution MONitor'] A program that is not invoked explicitly, but lies
dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. The idea is that the
perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a daemon is
lurking (though often a program will commit an action only because it
knows that it will implicitly invoke a daemon). For example, under
{ITS}, writing a file on the LPT spooler's directory would invoke the
spooling daemon, which would then print the file. The advantage is
that programs wanting (in this example) files printed need neither
compete for access to nor understand any idiosyncrasies of the LPT.
They simply enter their implicit requests and let the daemon decide
what to do with them. Daemons are usually spawned automatically by the
system, and may either live forever or be regenerated at intervals.
Daemon and {demon} are often used interchangeably, but seem to have
distinct connotations. The term daemon was introduced to computing by
{CTSS} people (who pronounced it /dee'mon/) and used it to refer to
what ITS called a {dragon}; the prototype was a program called DAEMON
that automatically made tape backups of the file system. Although the
meaning and the pronunciation have drifted, we think this glossary
reflects current (2000) usage.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
daemon
<operating system> /day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ (From the mythological
meaning, later rationalised as the acronym "Disk And Execution
MONitor") A program that is not invoked explicitly, but lies
dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. The idea is
that the perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a
daemon is lurking (though often a program will commit an
action only because it knows that it will implicitly invoke a
daemon).
For example, under {ITS} writing a file on the {LPT} spooler's
directory would invoke the spooling daemon, which would then
print the file. The advantage is that programs wanting files
printed need neither compete for access to, nor understand any
idiosyncrasies of, the {LPT}. They simply enter their
implicit requests and let the daemon decide what to do with
them. Daemons are usually spawned automatically by the
system, and may either live forever or be regenerated at
intervals.
{Unix} systems run many daemons, chiefly to handle requests
for services from other {hosts} on a {network}. Most of these
are now started as required by a single real daemon, {inetd},
rather than running continuously. Examples are {cron} (local
timed command execution), {rshd} (remote command execution),
{rlogind} and {telnetd} (remote login), {ftpd}, {nfsd} (file
transfer), {lpd} (printing).
Daemon and {demon} are often used interchangeably, but seem to
have distinct connotations (see {demon}). The term "daemon"
was introduced to computing by {CTSS} people (who pronounced
it /dee'mon/) and used it to refer to what {ITS} called a
{dragon}.
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-05-11)
from
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Daemon
the Greek form, rendered "devil" in the Authorized Version of
the New Testament. Daemons are spoken of as spiritual beings
(Matt. 8:16; 10:1; 12:43-45) at enmity with God, and as having a
certain power over man (James 2:19; Rev. 16:14). They recognize
our Lord as the Son of God (Matt. 8:20; Luke 4:41). They belong
to the number of those angels that "kept not their first
estate," "unclean spirits," "fallen angels," the angels of the
devil (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:7-9). They are the "principalities
and powers" against which we must "wrestle" (Eph. 6:12).
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
50 Moby Thesaurus words for "daemon":
Geist, Muse, afflatus, ancestral spirits, angel, attendant godling,
atua, control, creative thought, creativity, daimonion, demon,
divine afflatus, evil spirits, fairy godmother, familiar,
familiar spirit, fire of genius, genius, genius domus, genius loci,
good angel, good genius, guardian, guardian angel, guardian spirit,
guide, household gods, inspiration, intelligence, invisible helper,
lares and penates, lares compitales, lares familiaris,
lares permarini, lares praestites, lares viales, manes,
ministering angel, numen, penates, soul, special providence,
specter, spirit, supernatural being, talent, totem, tutelar god,
tutelary
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