ONLINE ETYMOLOGY
DICTIONARY
- 1660s, from L. daemonicus, from daemon (see demon). Demonical is from late 15c.
- c.1200, from L. daemon "spirit,"
from Gk. daimon "deity, divine power; lesser god; guiding
spirit, tutelary deity" (sometimes including souls of the
dead); "one's genius, lot, or fortune;" from PIE
*dai-mon- "divider, provider" (of fortunes or destinies),
from root *da- "to divide" (see tide).
Used (with daimonion) in Christian Greek translations and Vulgate for "god of the heathen" and "unclean spirit." Jewish authors earlier had employed the Greek word in this sense, using it to render shedim "lords, idols" in the Septuagint, and Matt. viii:31 has daimones, translated as deofol in O.E., feend or deuil in Middle English. Another Old English word for this was hellcniht, lit. "hell-knight."
The original mythological sense is sometimes written daemon for purposes of distinction. The Demon of Socrates was a daimonion, a "divine principle or inward oracle." His accusers, and later the Church Fathers, however, represented this otherwise. The Demon Star (1895) is Algol.
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