The Collaborative International Dictionary
Demonology \De`mon*ol"o*gy\ (?; 277), n. [Demon + -logy: cf. F.
d['e]monologie.]
A treatise on demons; a supposititious science which treats
of demons and their manifestations.
--Sir W. Scott.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s; see demon + -ology.
Wiktionary
n. The study of demons, especially the incantations required to summon and control them.
Wikipedia
Demonology is the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons. It is the branch of theology relating to supernatural beings who are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings that have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the rank of gods, and with malevolent beings of all kinds. The practitioner of demonology as a profession is called demonologist.
The original sense of "demon", from the time of Homer onward, was a benevolent being, but in English the name now holds connotations of malevolence. (In order to keep the distinction, when referring to the word in its original Greek meaning English uses the spelling " Daemon" or "Daimon".)
Demons, when regarded as spirits, may belong to either of the classes of spirits recognized by primitive animism; that is to say, they may be human, or non-human, separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body. A sharp distinction is often drawn between these two classes, notably by the Melanesians, several African groups, and others; the Arab jinn, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls; at the same time these classes are frequently conceived as producing identical results, e.g. diseases.
The word demonology is from Greek , daimōn, "divinity, divine power, god"; and , -logia.
Demonology is the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons.
Demonology may also refer to:
- Demonology 101, a graphic novel
- Demonologist, a Dungeons & Dragons prestige class
- An alternative spelling for Daemonologie, a dissertation on sorcery and demonology by King James
Usage examples of "demonology".
I saw her performing flesh in fantastic eddies and convulsions, the face with its smile of assent and the complicit look in the flattered eyes, the demonology of her underwear suggesting spiders and silk, her sharp shoulders, her fiery hair, the arched creature doing what that creature does best and the thrilling proof, so rich in pornography, that she does all this not for passion, not for comfort, far less for love, the proof that she does all this for money.
There is the same variety of character, the same diversity of story, the same copiousness of incident, the same research into costume, the same display of heraldry, falconry, minstrelsy, scenery, monkery, witchery, devilry, robbery, poachery, piracy, fishery, gipsy-astrology, demonology, architecture, fortification, castrametation, navigation.
Look to the demonologies, Petyr, the old books by the rabid clergy who do believe in devils, for those books contain more true knowledge of how to control these invisible beings than you might think.
And the historian must point out to him, for all the good it will do, that the fabrications of his demonologies come from the pagan peasant lore.
And if memory serves me now, I must aver that what we see through the legends, the books of magic, and the demonologies is a legion of entities which can be called up by name, and commanded by witches or sorcerers.
He is not the incubus of the demonologies who can steal the seed from sleeping men.
And if any of these find a little illicit fun by the way, their theories and dreams and theologies and demonologies are undoubtedly the better for it.
Without football’s myriad demonologies, how are those who have been distanced from the modern world supposed to prove that they understand it?
Readers with a taste for Dumas and demonology will enjoy his devious inventions.
A sorcerer or witch could summon a eudemon, but most of us know so little about demonology that we wouldn't know a eudemon from a cacodemon anyway.
Fortunately, she declines to push the obvious gender buttons, and instead presents the nocturnal assaults in terms more humanist than sexist, while offering her own speculation on the materia prima of demonology.
Here was a crime that seemed to transcend all the ordinary scientific knowledge of man and to carry the police and the investigators into an obfuscous and unreal realm of demonology and folk-lore--a realm fraught with dim racial memories of legendary terrors.