demon的词源

英文词源

demonyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
demon: [14] English acquired this word from Latin in two forms, classical Latin daemōn and medieval Latin dēmōn, which were once used fairly interchangeably for ‘evil spirit’ but have now split apart. Demon retains the sense ‘evil spirit’, but this was in fact a relatively late semantic development. Greek daímōn (source of Latin daemōn) meant ‘pine power, fate, god’ (it is probably related to Greek daíomai ‘distribute, allot’, which comes from an Indo- European base whose descendants include English tide and time).

It was used in Greek myths as a term for a minor deity, and it was also applied to a ‘guiding spirit’ (senses now usually denoted by daemon in English). It seems to be from this latter usage that the sense ‘evil spirit’ (found in the Greek Septuagint and New Testament and in the Latin Vulgate) arose.

=> pandemonium, time, tide
demon (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1200, from Latin daemon "spirit," from Greek daimon "deity, pine power; lesser god; guiding spirit, tutelary deity" (sometimes including souls of the dead); "one's genius, lot, or fortune;" from PIE *dai-mon- "pider, provider" (of fortunes or destinies), from root *da- "to pide" (see tide (n.)).

Used (with daimonion) in Christian Greek translations and Vulgate for "god of the heathen" and "unclean spirit." Jewish authors earlier had employed the Greek word in this sense, using it to render shedim "lords, idols" in the Septuagint, and Matt. viii:31 has daimones, translated as deofol in Old English, feend or deuil in Middle English. Another Old English word for this was hellcniht, literally "hell-knight."

The original mythological sense is sometimes written daemon for purposes of distinction. The Demon of Socrates was a daimonion, a "pine principle or inward oracle." His accusers, and later the Church Fathers, however, represented this otherwise. The Demon Star (1895) is Algol.

中文词源

demon(恶魔):希腊传统宗教中的神灵

单词demon(恶 魔)源自希腊语daimon,本意是“神灵、半神、守护神”,是基督教传入希腊之前希腊人所崇拜的各种传统神灵。基督教在希腊兴起后,由于基督教是一神 论,除上帝外不承认其他任何神灵,因此希腊传统宗教所信奉的各种神灵就被剥夺了神的地位,在希腊语版本的《圣经》中,daimon被用来表示“异教神灵、 不洁净的神灵”,从“神”向“魔”转变。进入英语后,demon的地位继续被贬低,被用来表示“恶魔”。

demon:['diːmən] n.恶魔,魔鬼,邪恶的事物

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版:demon 词源,demon 含义。

demon:恶魔

来自PIE*da, 分开,分配,命运的分配者。原指神灵,后词义贬义化,指魔鬼。