Daemon meaning
A guardian spirit; inspiring or inner spirit.
noun
A program or process that runs in the background but remains inactive until invoked.
noun
Any of the secondary divinities ranking between the gods and men.
noun
Pronounced "dee-mun" as in the word for devil, as well as "day-mun," a daemon is a Unix/Linux program that executes in the background ready to perform an operation when required. Functioning like an extension to the operating system, a daemon is usually an unattended process that is initiated at startup. Typical daemons are print spoolers and email handlers or a scheduler that starts up another process at a designated time. The term comes from Greek mythology, meaning "guardian spirit." See agent and mailer-daemon.
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From the Greek daimon, meaning divine power. A utility that resides in RAM, waiting in the background until an event triggers it to take action. Print spoolers, e-mail handlers, and automatic backup utilities are examples of daemons. In mythology, a daemon was variously a guardian spirit or secondary divinity in the form of a demigod, i.e., half-man and half-god, that was tasked with duties deemed too insignificant for the gods' attention. See also RAM and utility.
Origin of daemon
From Latin daemon (“genius, lar, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daimon, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”).