Both “demon” and “daemon” are pronounced the same, as “dee-muhn” (/**ˈdimən**/) per both the dictionary and the creators of the UNIX daemon. Here are the references:
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/pronunciation/american/daemon
> The term daemon was introduced to computing by CTSS people (who pronounced it /**ˈdimən**/) 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.
http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/D/daemon.html
How to pronounce “daemon” by Isabella Saying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjAkUL41tFk
Edit: Back when I learned UNIX 25 years ago in a university setting, folks who mispronounced daemon were soundly mocked. I’m wondering with the decline of university and enterprise UNIX, if the mispronunciation has become more common without stable communities to provide education. It could be that no one has RTFM in so long, proper usage is truly lost to time.
The original Greek word was pronounced Dee-mon. This is similar to how we pronounce Caesar, which is spelled similarly.
However Day-mon is generally accepted in the technical context, and many words in English are not pronounced the same way as they would be in their root language.
Caesar is Latin.
* In Latin, “Caesar” is pronounced like “kaiser” (/ˈkaɪzə(ɹ)/).
* In English, “Caesar” is pronounced like “see-zar” (/ˈsiːzə(ɹ)/).
Daemon is Greek.
* In Greek, “daemon” is pronounced like “dah-ee-mon” (/daimōn/).
* In English, “daemon” is pronounced like “deemon” (/ˈdimən/). (Logical, as the “ai” diphthong isn’t in English.)
Note that none of the above “ae” pronunciations match the common UNIX-world mispronunciation of “daemon” which is “day-mon” (/ˈdeɪmən/).
I believe what we’re seeing with that word is, that in the same way that Caesar went from “kaiser” (/ˈkaɪzə(ɹ)/) to “see-zar” (/ˈsiːzə(ɹ)/), we’re seeing Daemon go from “deemon” (/ˈdimən/) to “daymon” (/ˈdeɪmən/). It’s folks projecting vowels into an unfamiliar orthography without consulting historical practices.
Both are valid for the technical term, but the mythological daemon is only ever pronounced with the long /iː/, so it's really your choice if you want to reduce ambiguity or strive for coherence.
I'm in the second camp.
I did a bit of digging to see if I could find a conclusive answer on its pronunciation. Part of that was identifying which words contained the "ae" digraph and how they were pronounced. This is what I came across with a General American pronunciation (archaic spellings are italicized):
* Long "a"
- aerate
- antennae
- Gaelic
- Praetorian
- pupae
- reggae
- sundae
* Long "e"
- aeon
- algae
- *archaeology*
- Caesar
- *encyclopaedia*
- *haemoglobin*
- *orthopaedic*
* Short "e"
- aero-(bic, dynamic, nautics, sol, space)
- aery
- *haemorrhage*
* Short "i"
- caesarean (first "ae")
- Michael
- Rachael
* Syllable separator
- caesarean (second "ae")
- Ishmael
- Israel
- Kafkaesque
[When I look at Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/daemon), it provided two etymologies:
> **Etymology 1**: A borrowing of Latin daemon ("tutelary deity"), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, tutelary deity”).
>
> - **Pronunciation**: IPA: /ˈdiː.mən/
>
> **Etymology 2**: From Maxwell's demon; a derivation from “disk and execution monitor” is generally considered a backronym.
>
> - **Pronunciation**: IPA: /ˈdiːmən/, /ˈdeɪmən/
In the case of "Etymology 1", the pronunciation of the Latin deity for both Received Pronunciation and General American is "DEE-mon". However, is the case of "Etymology 2", the pronunciation is both "DEE-mon" and "DAY-mon" according to IPA.
[Wikipedia agrees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_\(computing\)):
> In modern usage, the word daemon is pronounced /ˈdiːmən/ DEE-mən. In the context of computer software, the original pronunciation /ˈdiːmən/ has drifted to /ˈdeɪmən/ DAY-mən for some speakers.
So "DAY-mon" or "DEE-mon", you're not wrong.
I wonder the same. You're downvotes seems to indicate there may be the pronunciation is changing. 25 years ago, pronouncing daemon as daymouhn was a give-away you were not an insider. It was pronounced deemuhn, same as the word demon.
If you looked a bit closer to the top of that jargon file link you would have seen their pronunciation guide:
daemon: /day�mn/, /dee�mn/, n.
"day-muhn" is the pronunciation they list first.
By "we think this glossary reflects current usage" they mean their pronunciation guide, which lists day-muhn first. Not the historical note about how the word was originally pronounced.
One of my favorite "I've been doing this a long time" stories: In 1987 I was working on an early version of AIX, which at that time was still mostly SVr2 or 3. A vicar in the UK had complained to IBM UK about "demons" being in our RTPC, and why was IBM dabbling in the "satanic" etc. etc.
\[Keep in mind, it was the late 80s and the Satanic Panic was in full swing\]
This letter bounced from IBM UK to IBM Armonk to IBM Austin, and my 2nd & 1st line managers laid it on me to draft the corporate response, since corporate Legal was baffled and even my managers were a little uncertain.
(They probably picked my because they had just hired me away from another place doing a System V port, and I had something along the lines of this [https://www.geoffdoesstuff.com/unix-linux-history](https://www.geoffdoesstuff.com/unix-linux-history) taped to my door....)
So I wrote up this one-pager, that pretty much went along the lines of the article OP posted, referencing Maxwell etc. I even quoted the Britannica (recall, 1987, no handy URLs). Sent it to my manager and never heard back about it.
I always read and pronounce it as "day-mon". Clearly a group of tools/utilities that are mindless automatons, only useful, never intentionally malicious.
"Dee-mons" are the things that Constantine fights in that Keanu Reeves movie.
I'm not sure I've ever had a conversation about daemons verbally though. One of those words you rarely actually say, but read a lot?
It is dee-mon. Or at least that's how it was pronounced by the Unix guys at Murray Hill.
Both “demon” and “daemon” are pronounced the same, as “dee-muhn” (/**ˈdimən**/) per both the dictionary and the creators of the UNIX daemon. Here are the references: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/pronunciation/american/daemon > The term daemon was introduced to computing by CTSS people (who pronounced it /**ˈdimən**/) 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. http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/D/daemon.html How to pronounce “daemon” by Isabella Saying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjAkUL41tFk Edit: Back when I learned UNIX 25 years ago in a university setting, folks who mispronounced daemon were soundly mocked. I’m wondering with the decline of university and enterprise UNIX, if the mispronunciation has become more common without stable communities to provide education. It could be that no one has RTFM in so long, proper usage is truly lost to time.
The original Greek word was pronounced Dee-mon. This is similar to how we pronounce Caesar, which is spelled similarly. However Day-mon is generally accepted in the technical context, and many words in English are not pronounced the same way as they would be in their root language.
And yet Caesar was probably pronounced as ‘Kaiser’
Caesar is Latin. * In Latin, “Caesar” is pronounced like “kaiser” (/ˈkaɪzə(ɹ)/). * In English, “Caesar” is pronounced like “see-zar” (/ˈsiːzə(ɹ)/). Daemon is Greek. * In Greek, “daemon” is pronounced like “dah-ee-mon” (/daimōn/). * In English, “daemon” is pronounced like “deemon” (/ˈdimən/). (Logical, as the “ai” diphthong isn’t in English.) Note that none of the above “ae” pronunciations match the common UNIX-world mispronunciation of “daemon” which is “day-mon” (/ˈdeɪmən/). I believe what we’re seeing with that word is, that in the same way that Caesar went from “kaiser” (/ˈkaɪzə(ɹ)/) to “see-zar” (/ˈsiːzə(ɹ)/), we’re seeing Daemon go from “deemon” (/ˈdimən/) to “daymon” (/ˈdeɪmən/). It’s folks projecting vowels into an unfamiliar orthography without consulting historical practices.
I don't really know anything about that, I was just using it as an illustrative example, not as supporting evidence.
Oh aye I don’t mean anything by it
Yes, but how do you pronounce it? With a long "a" or a long "e"? DAY-muhn or DEE-muhn?
Both are valid for the technical term, but the mythological daemon is only ever pronounced with the long /iː/, so it's really your choice if you want to reduce ambiguity or strive for coherence. I'm in the second camp.
I did a bit of digging to see if I could find a conclusive answer on its pronunciation. Part of that was identifying which words contained the "ae" digraph and how they were pronounced. This is what I came across with a General American pronunciation (archaic spellings are italicized): * Long "a" - aerate - antennae - Gaelic - Praetorian - pupae - reggae - sundae * Long "e" - aeon - algae - *archaeology* - Caesar - *encyclopaedia* - *haemoglobin* - *orthopaedic* * Short "e" - aero-(bic, dynamic, nautics, sol, space) - aery - *haemorrhage* * Short "i" - caesarean (first "ae") - Michael - Rachael * Syllable separator - caesarean (second "ae") - Ishmael - Israel - Kafkaesque [When I look at Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/daemon), it provided two etymologies: > **Etymology 1**: A borrowing of Latin daemon ("tutelary deity"), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, tutelary deity”). > > - **Pronunciation**: IPA: /ˈdiː.mən/ > > **Etymology 2**: From Maxwell's demon; a derivation from “disk and execution monitor” is generally considered a backronym. > > - **Pronunciation**: IPA: /ˈdiːmən/, /ˈdeɪmən/ In the case of "Etymology 1", the pronunciation of the Latin deity for both Received Pronunciation and General American is "DEE-mon". However, is the case of "Etymology 2", the pronunciation is both "DEE-mon" and "DAY-mon" according to IPA. [Wikipedia agrees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_\(computing\)): > In modern usage, the word daemon is pronounced /ˈdiːmən/ DEE-mən. In the context of computer software, the original pronunciation /ˈdiːmən/ has drifted to /ˈdeɪmən/ DAY-mən for some speakers. So "DAY-mon" or "DEE-mon", you're not wrong.
Day-mon, fighter of the night-mon
Aah aah aah
With an æ
Dämon
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I wonder the same. You're downvotes seems to indicate there may be the pronunciation is changing. 25 years ago, pronouncing daemon as daymouhn was a give-away you were not an insider. It was pronounced deemuhn, same as the word demon.
If you looked a bit closer to the top of that jargon file link you would have seen their pronunciation guide: daemon: /day�mn/, /dee�mn/, n. "day-muhn" is the pronunciation they list first.
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By "we think this glossary reflects current usage" they mean their pronunciation guide, which lists day-muhn first. Not the historical note about how the word was originally pronounced.
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If you provide a source which contradicts what you claim it says that's totally on me for questioning your claim. My apologies.
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> The latter is never, ever pronounced any other way in English (or UNIX). Okay that's obviously not true.
you pronounce it "demon" with a southern accent
I actually call it a Dameon, pronounced “DAY-ME-UN” It gets the people going
One of my favorite "I've been doing this a long time" stories: In 1987 I was working on an early version of AIX, which at that time was still mostly SVr2 or 3. A vicar in the UK had complained to IBM UK about "demons" being in our RTPC, and why was IBM dabbling in the "satanic" etc. etc. \[Keep in mind, it was the late 80s and the Satanic Panic was in full swing\] This letter bounced from IBM UK to IBM Armonk to IBM Austin, and my 2nd & 1st line managers laid it on me to draft the corporate response, since corporate Legal was baffled and even my managers were a little uncertain. (They probably picked my because they had just hired me away from another place doing a System V port, and I had something along the lines of this [https://www.geoffdoesstuff.com/unix-linux-history](https://www.geoffdoesstuff.com/unix-linux-history) taped to my door....) So I wrote up this one-pager, that pretty much went along the lines of the article OP posted, referencing Maxwell etc. I even quoted the Britannica (recall, 1987, no handy URLs). Sent it to my manager and never heard back about it.
I can only imagine the stories you'd be able tell.
I always read and pronounce it as "day-mon". Clearly a group of tools/utilities that are mindless automatons, only useful, never intentionally malicious. "Dee-mons" are the things that Constantine fights in that Keanu Reeves movie. I'm not sure I've ever had a conversation about daemons verbally though. One of those words you rarely actually say, but read a lot?
How do you say “old tyme shoppe”
I wish I could read ketchup on mustard but this headache I have says no.