demon

plural demons · alternative daimon · alternative daemon · alternative dæmon

1. An evil supernatural being.
   1. An evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil.First known use 10th c.

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      So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the "Thirteenth." In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons - an entity known as Ialdabaoth who lives in the 13th realm above the earth. Judas is his human alter ego, his undercover agent in the world. These Gnostics equated Ialdabaoth with the Hebrew Yahweh, whom they saw as a jealous and wrathful deity and an opponent of the supreme God whom Jesus came to earth to reveal. Whoever wrote the Gospel of Judas was a harsh critic of mainstream Christianity and its rituals. Because Judas is a demon working for Ialdabaoth, the author believed, when Judas sacrifices Jesus he does so to the demons, not to the supreme God. This mocks mainstream Christians' belief in the atoning value of Jesus' death and in the effectiveness of the Eucharist.

      2007 December 2, April D. DeConick, “What the Gospel of Judas really says”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Nov 2011, Essay

   2. historicalA false god or idol; a Satanic divinity.First known use 10th c.
   3. broadlyfigurativelyA very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child.First known use 16th c.
   4. A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw.First known use 17th c.

      The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth.

   5. in pluralA person's fears or anxieties.First known use 19th c.

      After a short spell on an adult psychiatric ward, she decided to find her own way to deal with her demons.

      2013 January 21, The Guardian

2. A neutral supernatural being.
   1. A person's inner spirit or genius; a guiding or creative impulse.First known use 14th c.

      Oh Anthony […] Thy Dæmon that thy spirit which keepes thee, is Noble, Couragious, high vnmatchable.

      c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]

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      “You saw her. And I picked her up,” Lyra said, blushing, because of course it was a gross violation of manners to touch something so private as someone else's dæmon.

      2000, Phillip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

   2. Greekhuman sciencesA tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly guided Socrates, telling him what not to do.First known use 16th c.
   3. A supernatural being not considered to be inherently evil; a (non-Christian) deity.First known use 19th c.
   4. A hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics.

      Let the orders now be that each demon is to stop all molecules from crossing his area in either direction except 100 coming from A, arbitrarily chosen to be let pass into B, and a greater number, having among them less energy but equal momentum, to cross from B to A.

      1874, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, “Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy” in Nature 9, 441-444

3. Someone with great strength, passion or skill for a particular activity, pursuit etc.; an enthusiast.First known use 19th c.

   He’s a demon at the card tables.

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   Chelsea defended like demons to snuff out Manchester City but this was a perfectly calibrated triumph, built upon a structured attacking approach, choosing the right moments to transition, and illuminated by the smoothness of Havertz’s technique.

   2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2021

4. card gamesA type of patience or solitaire (card game) played in the UK and/or US.First known use 19th c.

   ‘That's much the best feeling to have.’ She dealt out the first row of ‘demon’.

   1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 89

5. Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genera Notocrypta and Udaspes.

plural demons

1. abbreviationacronymnatural sciencesAcronym of distinct electron motion particle: a quasiparticle, a type of massless neutral electron excitation associated with superconductivity.

   Synonyms: DEMon, Pines' Demon, Pines Demon, Pines' demon, Pines demon, Pines's demon, Pines's Demon

plural demons · alternative daemon · alternative dæmon

1. alternativecomputingAlternative spelling of daemon.

1. uncountableAlternative letter-case form of demon (“card game”).

1. A male given name from Ancient Greek.

   Demon writes that Taurus, the chief captain of Minos, was slain by Theseus at the mouth of the port, in a naval combat as he was sailing out for Athens.

   1952, Plutarch, “Theseus”, in Dryden, et. al, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Great Books of the Western World; 14)