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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!ns.saard.net!news.camtech.net.au!news.adelaide.on.net!news.ade.connect.com.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!news.enteract.com!news.nap.net!news.wwa.com!news From: jeverett@wwa.com (John Everett) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: 16 Nov 1996 15:10:59 GMT Organization: WorldWide Access (tm) - Chicagoland Internet Services (http://www.wwa.com) Lines: 27 Message-ID: <56kli3$395@kirin.wwa.com> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> <328386bc.112278367@news.ov.com> <562i2k$f3a@kirin.wwa.com> <steve.847913388@fastnet.prd.co.uk> <328bb47a.2221749@news.msn.fullfeed.com> <56jl24$hhg@ordeal.cts.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: pool12-025.wwa.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.8 (x86 32bit) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26483 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1532 alt.folklore.computers:124719 In article <56jl24$hhg@ordeal.cts.com>, cwr@cts.com says... > >Jay R. Jaeger (Jay.Jaeger@msn.fullfeed.com) wrote: >: steve@fastnet.prd.co.uk (Steve Blinkhorn) wrote: > >: <snip> >: > someone who knows how to pronounce daemon >: >properly. >: > >: <snip> > >: According to whom? The dictionary I ahve lists the pronunciation as >: dEmen (long E). However, I know lots of would be Unix hacks who, for >: some reason, think it should be pronounced dAmen (long A). Or is this >: one of those British English vs. US English debates? > >Daemons and demons differ. Unix uses daemons (the ae is a dipthong) >but through time and casual usage I think most people now refer to >them as demons. Pity, since the earlier usage makes more sense. As I've posted here before, DAEMON was pronounced deemon (not daymon) when it was implemented on the PDP-10; back when UNIX was just a gleam in Ken Thompson's eye. -- jeverett@wwa.com (John V. Everett)