English

A spirit house – a shrine to the protective spirit of a place – on the island of Ko Kho Khao in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

Noun

daimon ‎(plural daimons)

1. A tutelary spirit that guides a person; a demon, a genius hominis.
   • 1890 January, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], “Over the Teacups”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume LXV, number CCCLXXXVII, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, OCLC 29046351, page 121:

     All at once, my daimōn—that other Me over whom I button my waistcoat when I button it over my own person—put it into my head to look up the story of Madame Saqui.

   • 1891, W[alter] J[ames] Hoffman, The Mide’wiwin or “Grand Medicine Society” of the Ojibwa, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, OCLC 875636599, page 163:

     The object which first appears is adopted as the personal mystery, guardian spirit, or tutelary daimon of the entranced, and is never mentioned by him without first making a sacrifice.

   • 1945, Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy: And its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, OCLC 807818556, book I, chapter 27:

     Marcus Aurelius is persuaded that God gives every man a special daimon as his guide – a belief which reappears in the Christian guardian angel.

   • 1960, Charles I. Glicksberg, “Norman Mailer: The Angry Young Novelist in America”, in Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, volume 1, number 1, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, OCLC 56138001:

     He will release his pent-up rage and fear no evil, for his genius is with him, and his daimon bids him violate all the taboos of the literary marketplace.

Synonyms

• demon, daemon (uncommon)
• genius hominis

Hypernyms

• genius
• tutelar ‎(noun), tutelary ‎(noun), tutelary deity, tutelary spirit

Coordinate terms

• genius loci, genius locorum
• household deity, household god
• lar

Derived terms

• daimonic

Translations

See also

• familiar (an attendant spirit, often in animal form)
• guardian angel

Anagrams

• domain
• domina

Hausa

Noun

daimòn m

1. diamond

Japanese

Romanization

daimon

1. rōmaji reading of だいもん
2. rōmaji reading of ダイモン