[W/K] :: DAEMON

  Daemon \D[ae]"mon\, n., Daemonic \D[ae]*mon"ic\, a.
     See Demon, Demonic.
     [1913 Webster]

  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.
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     2. One's genius; a tutelary spirit or internal voice; as, the
        demon of Socrates. [Often written d[ae]mon.]
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     3. An evil spirit; a devil.
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              That same demon that hath gulled thee thus. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]

  daemon
       n 1: one of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian
            belief [syn: devil, fiend, demon, daimon]
       2: a person who is part mortal and part god [syn: demigod]

  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
  
  

  DAEMON
       Disk And Execution MONitor (Unix)
       
       

  daemon /day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ n. [from the mythological meaning, later
     rationalized 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 (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.
  
  

  daemon
       
           /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)
       
       

  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).