Daemons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A supernatural being often depicted in various mythologies as a spirit that influences human lives and actions
2. a software program running in the background to manage systems and services
3. a guiding or tutelary spirit that provides inspiration or assistance to individuals

Etymology: The computing sense of "daemon" is a reference to James Clerk Maxwell's thought experiment of around 1867, in which a tiny imaginary being sorts fast and slow gas molecules to defy the second law of thermodynamics. Programmers borrowed the name for a process that quietly works unseen in the background, waiting to act on tasks, much as Maxwell's demon waited unseen at its gate. The older meaning comes from Ancient Greek "daimōn", a word for a divine power or spirit that dispensed fortune and guided a person's life. Romans took it as "daemon" and used it for a tutelary deity, a guardian presence attached to a place or individual. English kept the classical sense for supernatural beings for centuries, so the modern technical use is a deliberate reversal: a spirit of ill repute became a helpful, invisible servant. Because the computing sense is the plural's root, "daemons" simply refers to several such background processes running at once. The spelling "daemon" was retained in computing rather than the more common "demon", which marks the word's distinct, classical-influenced lineage.