Re: pronunciation of daemon
"Dwayne C . Litzenberger" wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jan 25, 2000 at 04:47:13PM -0000, Pollywog wrote:
> >
> > On 25-Jan-2000 Brian J. Stults wrote:
> > > Silly, but... How do you pronounce "daemon"? I thought it was
> > > pronounced "day-mun", but an online dictionary I checked said it had the
> > > same pronunciation as "demon".
> >
> > I pronounce it "demon" but I have heard a few people pronounce it "day-mun".
> > Since they also say "Lie-nucks", I went with "demon". :)
> >
(Somewhat OT, but may be of interest:)
It should be day-mon to distinguish it from demon - the original
word is Ancient Greek. A daemon was what we would describe as a
supernatural being, and could bring good or bad misfortune/luck
to a person. Some daimons watched over/guarded human beings (the
origin of the much later idea of guardian angel), their homes and
families, as some were associated with particular, often sacred,
places. In Greek literature, a person is often said to have a
lucky or an unlucky daimon.
The Sphinx of ancient Greek legend was a hostile daemon.
Demon is a much later word, associated with Christian theology.
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