[W/K] :: Demon

  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]

  demon
       n 1: one of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian
            belief [syn: devil, fiend, daemon, daimon]
       2: a cruel wicked and inhuman person [syn: monster, fiend,
          devil, ogre]
       3: someone extremely diligent or skillful; "he worked like a
          demon to finish the job on time"; "she's a demon at math"

  123 Moby Thesaurus words for "demon":
     Baba Yaga, Lilith, Mafioso, Satan, Young Turk, addict, afreet,
     ape-man, atua, barghest, beast, beldam, berserk, berserker, bomber,
     brute, bug, cacodemon, collector, daemon, daeva, damned spirits,
     demonkind, demons, denizens of hell, devil, devil incarnate,
     dragon, dybbuk, eager beaver, energumen, enthusiast, evil genius,
     evil spirit, evil spirits, faddist, fanatic, fiend,
     fiend from hell, fire-eater, firebrand, freak, fury, genie, genius,
     ghoul, goon, gorilla, great one for, gunsel, gyre, hardnose, harpy,
     hell-raiser, hellcat, hellhound, hellion, hellish host, hellkite,
     hobbyist, holy terror, hood, hoodlum, host of hell, hothead,
     hotspur, hound, incendiary, incubus, infatuate,
     inhabitants of Pandemonium, intelligence, jinni, jinniyeh, killer,
     lamia, lost souls, mad dog, madcap, monster, mugger, nut, ogre,
     ogress, powers of darkness, pursuer, rakshasa, rapist,
     revolutionary, rhapsodist, satan, savage, she-wolf, shedu,
     souls in hell, specter, spirit, spitfire, succubus, sucker for,
     supernatural being, termagant, terror, terrorist, the damned,
     the lost, the undead, tiger, tigress, tough, tough guy,
     ugly customer, vampire, violent, virago, visionary, vixen,
     werewolf, wild beast, witch, wolf, yogini, zealot
  
  

  20 Moby Thesaurus words for "Demon":
     His Satanic Majesty, Lucifer, Satan, Satanas, the Adversary,
     the Arch-fiend, the Common Enemy, the Demon, the Devil,
     the Devil Incarnate, the Evil One, the Evil Spirit, the Fiend,
     the Foul Fiend, the Old Enemy, the Old Serpent, the Tempter,
     the Wicked One, the archenemy, the serpent
  
  

  demon n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program that is not invoked
     explicitly, but that lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to
     occur. See daemon. The distinction is that demons are usually
     processes within a program, while daemons are usually programs running
     on an operating system. 2. [outside MIT] Often used equivalently to
     daemon -- especially in the {Unix world, where the latter spelling
     and pronunciation is considered mildly archaic.
  
     Demons in sense 1 are particularly common in AI programs. For example,
     a knowledge-manipulation program might implement inference rules as
     demons. Whenever a new piece of knowledge was added, various demons
     would activate (which demons depends on the particular piece of data)
     and would create additional pieces of knowledge by applying their
     respective inference rules to the original piece. These new pieces could
     in turn activate more demons as the inferences filtered down through
     chains of logic. Meanwhile, the main program could continue with
     whatever its primary task was.
  
  

  demon
       
          1.  (Often used equivalently to daemon,
          especially in the Unix world, where the latter spelling and
          pronunciation is considered mildly archaic).  A program or
          part of a program which is not invoked explicitly, but that
          lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur.
       
          At MIT they use "demon" for part of a program and "daemon"
          for an operating system process.
       
          Demons (parts of programs) are particularly common in AI
          programs.  For example, a knowledge-manipulation program
          might implement inference rules as demons.  Whenever a new
          piece of knowledge was added, various demons would activate
          (which demons depends on the particular piece of data) and
          would create additional pieces of knowledge by applying their
          respective inference rules to the original piece.  These new
          pieces could in turn activate more demons as the inferences
          filtered down through chains of logic.  Meanwhile, the main
          program could continue with whatever its primary task was.
          This is similar to the triggers used in relational
          databases.
       
          The use of this term may derive from "Maxwell's Demons" -
          minute beings which can reverse the normal flow of heat from a
          hot body to a cold body by only allowing fast moving molecules
          to go from the cold body to the hot one and slow molecules
          from hot to cold.  The solution to this apparent thermodynamic
          paradox is that the demons would require an external supply of
          energy to do their work and it is only in the absence of such
          a supply that heat must necessarily flow from hot to cold.
       
          Walt Bunch believes the term comes from the demons in Oliver
          Selfridge's paper "Pandemonium", MIT 1958, which was named
          after the capital of Hell in Milton's "Paradise Lost".
          Selfridge likened neural cells firing in response to input
          patterns to the chaos of millions of demons shrieking in
          Pandemonium.
       
          2.  Demon Internet Ltd.
       
          3. A program generator for differential equation problems.
       
          [N.W. Bennett, Australian AEC Research Establishment,
          AAEC/E142, Aug 1965].
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
          (1998-09-04)
       
       

  Demon
     See DAEMON.