daimon

English

WOTD – 29 May 2016

A spirit house – a shrine to the protective spirit of a place – on the island of Ko Kho Khao in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

Etymology

A modern romanization of Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “the one who divides, dispenser, tutelary deity”), intended to distinguish its ancient Greek sense from later conceptions of demons. Compare Ancient Greek Λᾰκεδαίμων (Lakedaímōn, “Laconian dispenser”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdʌɪməʊn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪˌmoʊn/
• Hyphenation: dai‧mon

Noun

daimon (plural daimons or daimones)

1. Synonym of demon, particularly as
   • 1983 August 13, John Rosario, “Illustrious Obscurity”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 5, page 16:

     Love, as we know it in the book, is a daimon which possesses and undoes each of its victims.

   1. (Greek mythology) A tutelary deity or spirit that watches over a person or place.
      • 1890 January, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], “Over the Teacups”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume LXV, number CCCLXXXVII, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, →OCLC, page 121:

        All at once, my daimōn—that other Me over whom I button my waistcoat when I button it over my own person—put it into my head to look up the story of Madame Saqui.

      • 1891, W[alter] J[ames] Hoffman, The Mide’wiwin or “Grand Medicine Society” of the Ojibwa, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 163:

        The object which first appears is adopted as the personal mystery, guardian spirit, or tutelary daimon of the entranced, and is never mentioned by him without first making a sacrifice.

      • 1945, Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy: And its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, book I, chapter 27:

        Marcus Aurelius is persuaded that God gives every man a special daimon as his guide – a belief which reappears in the Christian guardian angel.

      • 1960, Charles I. Glicksberg, “Norman Mailer: The Angry Young Novelist in America”, in Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, volume 1, number 1, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, →OCLC:

        He will release his pent-up rage and fear no evil, for his genius is with him, and his daimon bids him violate all the taboos of the literary marketplace.

Derived terms

• daimonic
• daimonology

Related terms

• agathodaimon
• daimonian
• eudaimon
• kakodaimon

Translations

tutelary deity — see tutelary deity

Anagrams

• Amidon, Imonda, domain, domina

Hausa

Etymology

From English diamond.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dái.mòn/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [déi.mɔ̀ŋ]

Noun

daimòn m

1. diamond

Japanese

Romanization

daimon

1. Rōmaji transcription of だいもん
2. Rōmaji transcription of ダイモン