Daemon? Demon?
by hazel from LinuxQuestions.org on (#4W3AS)
In Philip Pullman's fantasy epic His Dark Materials, every character is accompanied by an animal familiar called a daemon, which represents that person's soul. Although he uses this spelling, which is Latin and should therefore be pronounced "daimon"/"dymon", his preferred pronunciation is "demon". Maybe that's just a dig at the Christian Church, which he hates. But it got me thinking.
I have always thought of background daemon processes in Linux as being pronounced in the Latin or Greek way, but that may be because I did Latin at school. In those days, you needed O-level Latin to get into the best universities. I doubt if many people study it today outside the public school system. So do people on this forum say "dymon" or "demon"?


I have always thought of background daemon processes in Linux as being pronounced in the Latin or Greek way, but that may be because I did Latin at school. In those days, you needed O-level Latin to get into the best universities. I doubt if many people study it today outside the public school system. So do people on this forum say "dymon" or "demon"?