We are surely coming, here, from Greek Daimon, which translates directly
into Latin Daemon carrying the meaning Robin has given with the additional
meaning of a guiding spirit. The form Demon arrived pretty early, and I
think was the one to carry the evil spirit sense, though I haven't been able
to find out how early it took it on. This is what all my English
dictionaries give me; however, White's Latin-English Dictionary, which I'd
thought was pretty reliable, gives none of these words at all, amazingly.
Mediaeval Latin was I've always thought something of a strange animal,
tending to be a bit individualistic in spelling etc. It's surely perfectly
possible to have variations in spelling that didn't, at least at the time,
denote changes of meaning. (Thoughtless, but there you are, people always
were.)
I'm sure listmembers are going to come out of the woodwork and take me up on
this. Any of you out there who can direct me to a reliable Mediaeval Latin
dictionary? I'd be glad to know of one.
best joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <
>>>
> How absolute the knave is! I was being Jungian, of course - and in
> Mediaeval Latin Daemon meant the Devil viz.
>>>
>
> I just cot up with this, and it is, of course, utter bullshit.
>
> A daemon is (as Martin perfectly bloody well knows) an immaterial creature
> with a status somewhere between a god and a beast.
>
> Puck or Ariel, doesn't matter what you call the Creature.
>
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