What is "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.

   The demon kind is of an intermediate nature between the divine and the human.
   --Sydenham.

2. One's genius; a tutelary spirit or internal voice; as, the demon of Socrates. [Often written d[ae]mon.]

3. An evil spirit; a devil.

   That same demon that hath gulled thee thus.
   --Shak.

c.1200, from Latin daemon "spirit," from Greek 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 (n.)).\n

\nUsed (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 Old English, feend or deuil in Middle English. Another Old English word for this was hellcniht, literally "hell-knight."\n

\nThe 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.

n. 1 An evil spirit. 2 A fallen angel or Satanic divinity; a false god. 3 One’s inner spirit or genius, a daimon. 4 (context Greek mythology Roman mythology English) A genius, a lar, the protective spirit or godling of a place, household, or individual. 5 A foible; a flaw in a person’s character. 6 Someone of remarkable or diabolical energy or ability. 7 (context figurative English) Anything with malevolent effects.

1. n. 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"

A demon (from Koine Greek daimonion) or daemon ( British English) is a supernatural, often malevolent being prevalent in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology and folklore.

The original Greek word daimon does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of the Koine (daimonion), and later ascribed to any cognate words sharing the root.

In Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an unclean spirit, a fallen angel, or a spirit of unknown type which may cause demonic possession, calling for an exorcism. In Western occultism and Renaissance magic, which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic, Jewish Aggadah and Christian demonology, a demon is believed to be a spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled.

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, demons are the most widespread race of fiends. The demons are chaotic evil by nature, and are native to the Abyss. Demons have no true rulers, though powerful demon lords are able to gain enough power and influence to gain control over sizable armies of demonic creatures.

A demon is a malevolent being in mythology or occultism.

Demon or daemon may also refer to:

Demon is an English heavy metal group, formed in 1979 by vocalist Dave Hill and guitarist Mal Spooner, both hailing from Leek, Staffordshire. They are considered an important band in the new wave of British heavy metal movement.

Demon is a Locus nominated 1984 science fiction novel by John Varley. It is the third and final book in his Gaea Trilogy.

Demon, in comics, may refer to:

• Demons in the Marvel Universe, several Marvel characters
• Etrigan the Demon, a DC comics character

Demon is a multi-looping roller coaster at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois in the Chicago area and California's Great America in Santa Clara, California. Both coasters opened in 1976 as Turn of the Century and were heavily rethemed and renamed as Demon in 1980.

In the fictional Buffyverse established by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, a Demon is a kind of nonhuman life form separate from the animal kingdom.

The definition raises complex issues. Roughly speaking, the series uses demon to describe any creature that is not a god, robot, unmodified human, or standard terrestrial animal. Thus, the category ''demon'' includes independent self-reproducing species, former humans that have been parasitically possessed via mystical or pseudo-biological processes, non-sentient species from adjacent dimensions, life forms that have been created or modified to serve some specific purpose, self-modifying individuals of indeterminate origin, and the hybrid offspring of any or all of the above.

Demon (; Ainu: カムイヌプリ, Kamui-nupuri; , Kamui-dake) is a stratovolcano located at the northern end of Iturup Island, Kuril Islands, Russia.

The Ilya Muromets Waterfall, one of the highest in Russia, falls abruptly from the eastern slope of the volcano into the Pacific Ocean.

__NOTOC__ "Demon" is the 92nd episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 24th episode of the fourth season.

Demon is a monochrome vector arcade game from Rock-Ola that was created in 1982. The premise was that the player must fly his space shuttle around the screen collecting the crystals to keep the ship's laser powered.

In thought experiments philosophers occasionally imagine entities with special abilities as a way to pose tough intellectual challenges or highlight apparent paradoxes. Examples include:

• Descartes’ malicious demon – Cartesian skepticism (also called methodological skepticism) advocates the doubting of all things that cannot be justified through logic. Descartes uses three arguments to cast doubt on our ability to objectively know: The dream argument, the deceiving God argument, and the malicious demon argument. Since our senses cannot put us in contact with external objects themselves, but only with our mental images of such objects, we can have no absolute certainty that anything exists in the external world. In the evil demon argument Descartes proposes an entity who is capable of deceiving us to such a degree that we have reason to doubt the totality of what our senses tell us.
• Laplace's demon is a hypothetical all-knowing being who knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe, and therefore could use Newton's laws to reveal the entire course of cosmic events, past and future. Based upon the philosophical proposition of causal determinism.
• Maxwell's demon can distinguish between fast and slow moving molecules. If this demon only let fast moving molecules through a trapdoor to a container, the temperature inside the container would increase without any work being applied. Such a scenario violates the second law of thermodynamics.
• Morton's demon stands at the gateway of a person's senses and lets in facts that agree with that person's beliefs while deflecting those that do not. This demon is used to explain the phenomenon of confirmation bias.
• In aphorism 341 of The Gay Science, Nietzsche puts forth his eternal recurrence concept. In it, he employs a demon with special metaphysical knowledge as an agent for forcing reevaluation of perspective on one's own life.
• The Darwinian Demon is a hypothetical organism which can simultaneously maximize all aspects of its fitness.

Demon is a poem by Mikhail Lermontov, written in several versions in the years 1829 to 1839. It is considered a masterpiece of European Romantic poetry.

Lermontov began work on the poem when he was just 14 or 15, but completed it only during his Caucasus exile. Lermontov wrote six major variations of the poem, and the final version was not published until 1842, after his death.

The poem is set in Lermontov's beloved Caucasus Mountains. It opens with the eponymous protagonist wandering the earth, hopeless and troubled. He dwells in infinite isolation, his immortality and unlimited power a worthless burden. Then he spies the beautiful Georgian Princess Tamara, dancing for her wedding, and in the desert of his soul wells an indescribable emotion.

The Demon, acting as a brutal and powerful tyrant, destroys his rival: at his instigation, robbers come to despoil the wedding and kill Tamara's betrothed. The Demon courts Tamara, and Tamara knows fear, yet in him she sees not a demon nor an angel but a tortured soul. Eventually she yields to his embrace, but his kiss is fatal. And though she is taken to Heaven, the Demon is left again "Alone in all the universe, Abandoned, without love or hope!...".

"Demon" is a song by Korean-American singer, Jay Park. It was first released as a digital single on September 5, 2011 in South Korea, then as a digital single on iTunes on September 13, 2011 worldwide.

Jeremie Mondon, known by his stage name Demon, is a French artist and producer of electronic music born in 1977 in Paris. His music comes under the genre known as French touch.

Demon is a 2015 Polish drama film directed by Marcin Wrona. It was shown in the Vanguard section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.