Save the Demon!

[Bob Bishop]

At 06:32 10/02/2005, Peter Jeremy wrote:
>On 2005-Feb-10 04:39:13 +0100, Bj?rn K?nig <bkoenig at cs.tu-berlin.de> wrote:
> >David Magda wrote:
> >
> >>It's "daemon", not "demon".
>
>Or even "dæmon"
>
> >It's a question whether you are British or American or understand it as
> >a proper name. ;-)
>
>My dictionary has both as headwords with a reference from demon to
>daemon (but not vice versa) and lists "a service program that is
>called into action by the operating system" under daemon.  The
>etymology is from greek "daimon" via latin "daemon".

FWIW, Concise Oxford has:

demon n.
...
5 (also daemon) a) an inner or attendant spirit; a genius (the demon of 
creativity). b) a divinity or supernatural being in ancient Greece.

--
Bob Bishop		    +44 (0)118 940 1243
rb at gid.co.uk		fax +44 (0)118 940 1295