daemon

8 definitions found

daemon - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Daemon \D[ae]"mon\, n., Daemonic \D[ae]*mon"ic\, a.
     See Demon, Demonic.
     [1913 Webster]

  Demon \De"mon\, n. [F. d['e]mon, L. daemon a spirit, an evil
     spirit, fr. Gr. dai`mwn a divinity; of uncertain origin.]
     1. (Gr. Antiq.) A spirit, or immaterial being, holding a
        middle place between men and deities in pagan mythology.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The demon kind is of an intermediate nature between
              the divine and the human.             --Sydenham.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. One's genius; a tutelary spirit or internal voice; as, the
        demon of Socrates. [Often written d[ae]mon.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. An evil spirit; a devil.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              That same demon that hath gulled thee thus. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]

daemon - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  daemon
      n 1: an evil supernatural being [syn: devil, fiend, demon,
           daemon, daimon]
      2: a person who is part mortal and part god [syn: daemon,
         demigod]

daemon - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  daemon
  
     <operating system> /day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ (From the mythological
     meaning, later rationalised as the acronym "Disk And Execution
     MONitor") A program that is not invoked explicitly, but lies
     dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur.  The idea is
     that the perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a
     daemon is lurking (though often a program will commit an
     action only because it knows that it will implicitly invoke a
     daemon).
  
     For example, under ITS writing a file on the LPT spooler's
     directory would invoke the spooling daemon, which would then
     print the file.  The advantage is that programs wanting files
     printed need neither compete for access to, nor understand any
     idiosyncrasies of, the LPT.  They simply enter their
     implicit requests and let the daemon decide what to do with
     them.  Daemons are usually spawned automatically by the
     system, and may either live forever or be regenerated at
     intervals.
  
     Unix systems run many daemons, chiefly to handle requests
     for services from other hosts on a network.  Most of these
     are now started as required by a single real daemon, inetd,
     rather than running continuously.  Examples are cron (local
     timed command execution), rshd (remote command execution),
     rlogind and telnetd (remote login), ftpd, nfsd (file
     transfer), lpd (printing).
  
     Daemon and demon are often used interchangeably, but seem to
     have distinct connotations (see demon).  The term "daemon"
     was introduced to computing by CTSS people (who pronounced
     it /dee'mon/) and used it to refer to what ITS called a
     dragon.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1995-05-11)
  

daemon - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  daemon
   /day'mn/, /dee'mn/, n.
  
     [from Maxwell's Demon, later incorrectly retronymed as `Disk And
     Execution MONitor'] A program that is not invoked explicitly, but
  lies
     dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. The idea is that the
     perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a daemon is
     lurking (though often a program will commit an action only because it
     knows that it will implicitly invoke a daemon). For example, under
     ITS, writing a file on the LPT spooler's directory would invoke the
     spooling daemon, which would then print the file. The advantage is
     that programs wanting (in this example) files printed need neither
     compete for access to nor understand any idiosyncrasies of the LPT.
     They simply enter their implicit requests and let the daemon decide
     what to do with them. Daemons are usually spawned automatically by
  the
     system, and may either live forever or be regenerated at intervals.
  
     Daemon and demon are often used interchangeably, but seem to have
     distinct connotations. The term daemon was introduced to computing by
     CTSS people (who pronounced it /dee'mon/) and used it to refer to
     what ITS called a dragon; the prototype was a program called DAEMON
     that automatically made tape backups of the file system. Although the
     meaning and the pronunciation have drifted, we think this glossary
     reflects current (2000) usage.
  

daemon - V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2006) :

  DAEMON
         Disk And Execution MONitor (Unix)
         

daemon - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Daemon
  the Greek form, rendered "devil" in the Authorized Version of
  the New Testament. Daemons are spoken of as spiritual beings
  (Matt. 8:16; 10:1; 12:43-45) at enmity with God, and as having a
  certain power over man (James 2:19; Rev. 16:14). They recognize
  our Lord as the Son of God (Matt. 8:20; Luke 4:41). They belong
  to the number of those angels that "kept not their first
  estate," "unclean spirits," "fallen angels," the angels of the
  devil (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:7-9). They are the "principalities
  and powers" against which we must "wrestle" (Eph. 6:12).

daemon - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  50 Moby Thesaurus words for "daemon":
     Geist, Muse, afflatus, ancestral spirits, angel, attendant godling,
     atua, control, creative thought, creativity, daimonion, demon,
     divine afflatus, evil spirits, fairy godmother, familiar,
     familiar spirit, fire of genius, genius, genius domus, genius loci,
     good angel, good genius, guardian, guardian angel, guardian spirit,
     guide, household gods, inspiration, intelligence, invisible helper,
     lares and penates, lares compitales, lares familiaris,
     lares permarini, lares praestites, lares viales, manes,
     ministering angel, numen, penates, soul, special providence,
     specter, spirit, supernatural being, talent, totem, tutelar god,
     tutelary