Demon (pronounced dee-muhn (U) or dee-mon (non-U))
(1) An evil
supernatural spirit; devil or fiend; an evil spirit resident in or working for
Hell; a devil; a false god or idol; a Satanic divinity.
(2) An evil
passion or influence.
(3) A most wicked,
cruel or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person,
especially a child.
(4) A person
who is extremely skillful in, energetic at, or devoted to a given activity,
especially a sport.
(5) Of,
pertaining to, characteristic of, or noting a demon.
(6) In
computing, a part of a computer program, such as a help facility, that can run
in the background behind the current task or application, and which will only
begin to work when certain conditions are met or when it is specifically
invoked; often styled daemon.
(7) A
person's fears or anxieties (always in the plural and usually in the form “haunted
by their demons” or “facing their demons”).
(8) In Greek
mythology, a tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian
gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly
guided Socrates, telling him what not to do.
(9) In the
thought experiments of both physics and philosophy, a hypothetical entity with
special abilities postulated for the purposes required.
(10) A
person's inner spirit or genius; a guiding or creative impulse (archaic).
(11) In card
games, a type of patience or solitaire played in the UK & US.
(12) Any of
various hesperiid butterflies of the genera Notocrypta and Udaspes.
Circa 1200-1250: From the Middle English demon (an evil
spirit, malignant supernatural being, an incubus, a devil), from the Medieval
Latin dēmōn, daemōn & daemoniumm (lar, familiar spirit,
guardian spirit), from the Ancient Greek daimónion
(thing of divine nature (though when used by Jewish and Christian writers: “evil
spirit”)), neuter of daimónios, from δαίμων
(daímōn) (deity, divine power; lesser
god; guiding spirit, tutelary deity) and in both the Greek and Latin, the
meanings sometime extended to souls of the dead and “one's genius, lot, or
fortune”. Ultimate root was the
primitive Indo-European dai-mon (divider,
provider (of fortunes or destinies)) from the root da (to divide). The
alternative spellings daemon & daimon was used in specialized senses
and remain a favourite of the modern gaming industry; daimon was a transliteration of the Greek daimōn which was deployed to avoid the post-classical associations
of demon (often in the adjectival form daimonic). The demoness (female demon) dates from the
1630s. Demon is a noun; the noun plural
is demons.
The malignant sense existed in English from the start because
the Greek word was used (with daimonion)
in Christian Greek translations and the Vulgate (the principal Latin version of
the Bible, prepared mainly by the theologian Saint Jerome (circa 344-Circa 420)
in the late fourth century, and (as revised in 1592) adopted as the official
text for the Roman Catholic Church) for "god of the heathen, heathen
idol" and also for "unclean spirit". This was also part of the Jewish tradition where
authors had used the Greek word in this sense, using it to render shedim (lords, idols) in the Septuagint
and in Matthew 8:31 there appears daimones,
translated as deofol in the Old
English & feend or deuil in the Middle English. A more evocative word in the Old English word was
hellcniht (literally
"hell-knight"). The inherited
sense from the Ancient Greek (supernatural agent or intelligence lower than a
god; a ministering spirit) appeared in English from the 1560s, written variously
as daemon or daimon. The meaning "destructive or hideous
person" is from the 1610s and as "an evil agency personified" (ie
the demon drink), from 1712. In another
sense in late fourteenth century English, the “Demon of Socrates” was a daimonion (a divine principle or inward
oracle) although his accusers (and later the Church Fathers) represented this
otherwise. The Demon Star (1895) is Algol (variable star (Beta Persei)) in
the constellation Perseus, documented in the late fourteenth century, which
translates literally as "the Demon" from the Arabic al-ghul (the demon), from which is
derived the modern ghoul. It
corresponds, in modern representations of the constellation, to the gorgon's
head Perseus holds, but probably it was so called because it visibly varies in
brightness every three days, which sets it apart from other bright stars. In one of the most famous fragments of
English verse, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s (1772-1834) Kubla Khan (1798), there are the lines:
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
The noun demonarchy (rule or dominion of demons) first appeared in the 1640s while the noun demonology (the study of demons or beliefs about demons) had appeared in both secular and church documents as early as the 1590s, the related terms of the discipline being demonologer & demonological. The adjective demonic (also daemonic) (devilish, of the nature of or pertaining to a demon), from the Latin daemonicus dates from the 1660s while demonical (from the Old English glossed daemonicus with deofelseoc (devil-sick) was from later in the century. The adjective demoniac (possessed by a demon, insane) was from circa 1400 but several decades earlier there had been the noun demoniak, (one who is possessed, a lunatic), from the Late Latin daemoniacus, from the Greek daimoniakos (possessed by a demon), from diamond. From the 1640s the adjective was used in the sense of "of or pertaining to demons or spirits" while by 1820 this had extended to a rather softened "devilish"; the related forms were demoniacal & demoniacally.
The verb demonize (also demonise) (to make into a demon (literally or figuratively)) dates from 1778, either as a construct built from the noun or from the Medieval Latin daemonizare, all influenced by the Greek daimonizesthai (to be under the power of a tutelary deity) and the sense in the New Testament of "to be possessed by a demon”, the related forms demonized, demonizing & demonization all in use by the late eighteenth century. The noun Pandæmonium (pandemonium the modern form) was in 1667 coined by John Milton (1608-1674) in Paradise Lost as the name of the palace built in the middle of Hell (the high capital of Satan and all his peers and the abode of all the demons), the construct being the Greek pan- (all) + the Late Latin daemonium (evil spirit) from the Greek daimonion (inferior divine power) from daimōn (in the sense of lesser god).
The Dodge Demons
The 1969 Dodge Swinger 340 (left), a platform familiar in Australia where it was produced (1969-1971) in a variety of configurations including a two-door hardtop (a 1971 VG Regal 770 (centre)) and four-door sedans (a 1971 long-wheelbase VIP (right)).
The Dodge Dart of the mid 1960s was a compact (in US terms) economy car which fulfilled its role well, lasting indeed until the late 1970s when it turned out to be in many ways superior to its ill-fated replacements. However, an unusual conjunction of economic, legislative and demographic factors in the late 1960s made the Dart an ideal platform for a cheap muscle car which could easily and quickly be built from the corporate parts bin. Its humble origins were never entirely disguised and it always lurked behind the sturm und drang of the bigger, more illustrious models like the Charger, Challenger and Daytona but as a bargain-priced muscle car, it deserved success. Dodge had tentatively dipped the Dart’s toe into the muscle car waters in 1967 when it introduced the Dart GTS which, fitted with a 273 cubic inch (4.4 litre) V8 performed admirably given its modest specification but it the next year it became available with a new 340 cubic inch (5.5 litre) V8 which, thought under-rated at 275 (gross) horsepower, was one of the best units of the era. Able in most cases to match the performance offered by much of the bigger-engined competition, reviews were positive and in 1969 a separate line called the Swinger 340 was released, a package which convinced Dodge to abandon its brief flirtation with overkill, not renewing the availability of the 383 & 440 cubic inch (6.3 & 7.2 litre) V8 engines in the platform. The big-block engines were really suitable only for a drag strip, the lighter 340 a better idea.
1971 Dodge Demon 340.
In 1971, the Dart received an additional body style, borrowed
from their corporate companion Plymouth which had added the Duster coupé as a
stylish addition to the Valiant line, their equivalent of the compact Dart. However, Dodge’s marketing people in the
early 1970s either smoked too much weed or didn’t get out enough because shortly
after flirting with the idea of adding statutory grape to their paint colour charts, they decided to call their new
high-performance compact the Demon. That upset the Christian lobby, influential
even then but remarkably, the marketing department was going to use the name Beaver until more worldly types told
them about its use in slang. The
churches weren’t best pleased about Demon
but, given the scriptural basis, they relented despite the cartoon devil on a
decal stuck to the fenders. The
churches, not impressed with a marketing strategy which seemed to support the
Antichrist weren’t convinced by the explanation that it was all about a play on
words (Come in for a Demon-stration) and continued to protest. Dodge persisted and although denied statutory grape, buyers could choose
lurid colors like Go-Green and Citron Yella while for those intent on
building the quickest version possible, there was the Demon Sizzler package which bundled a number of dress-up and high
performance options. It was a good
combination at a low price but it was out-sold by the mechanically identical
Plymouth Duster 340s possibly because the Christian lobby had actually organized the preaching
of sermons condemning Dodge as doing the Devil’s work so in 1973 the Demon nomenclature
(and the offending cartoon) was dropped, the thing re-branded to the bland Dart
Sport, a line which ran for three years (although the once virile 340 would be
detuned and then replaced with a much milder 360 cubic inch (5.9 litre) unit. The Christian lobby thus claimed the demon’s
scalp although they never managed to veto Dodge’s use of Swinger and today, the 1971 & 1972 Demon 340s are sought-after. Production numbers were never high (10,098 &
8,700 respectively) and give its cheap, disposable nature, and the buyers
attracted to such things over the decades, attrition rates were high and
survivors are few although, as just about everywhere in the muscle car
ecosystem, there’s a minor industry in creating clones.
Demon redux: 2018 Dodge Challenger Demon. The yellow plastic guard on the leading edge of the front splitter was attached at the factory to deter damage during transport to dealerships. The instruction was to remove them prior to sale but they picked up a cult following and many buyers insisted they be retained.
Chrysler reprised the Dodge Demon name in 2018 (and Swinger in 2022) apparently with little theological opposition. The engine used in the new Demon was an evolution of the 376 cubic inch (6.2 litre) Hemi V8 which, in 2017’s Challenger Hellcat, was rated at 707 horsepower. With production limited to 3300 units, the 2018 Demon used a supercharged Hemi which produced 808 hp but an optional package boosted that to 840. So equipped, the Demon would cover a standing quarter-mile (400m) in 9.65 seconds at 140 mph (225 km/h) and cost was a remarkably modest US$86,091 including the optional package which, while not entirely suitable for driving on public roads, was completely street-legal. It included a number of features which hinted at its real purpose, including the passenger and rear seats being no-cost options and, most intriguingly, a high-output mode which both increased power and disabled the cabin air-conditioning, routing its cooling flow instead to the induction system, a device that lowered the intake temperature by 18-odd degrees, thereby gaining a few more horsepower. Although tuned for quarter-mile sprints and thus limiting top-speed to about 170 mph (270 km/h), it could be geared for top end performance and would easily exceed 200 mph (320 km/h).
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