>> The former came to English from medieval Latin, while the latter was from classical Latin. And it probably came to Latin from Greek: "δαίμων" is a deity, or

>> The former came to English from medieval Latin, while the latter was from classical Latin. And it probably came to Latin from Greek: "δαίμων" is a deity, or spirit, not necessarily associated with something evil. As a sibling comment hints at, Socrates used to say that he had a "δαίμων" inside him, that advised him. This was used against him in his trial where one of the accusations was that he "introduced new daemons" ("εισάγει καινά δαιμόνια"), meaning new gods, new religions, he was essentially accused of prosyletising. And of corrupting youth, of course (well, one of his students was Alcibiades, a young man so debauched that it was easy to believe he had been corrupted by someone, probably many people at once, and many more times than one; probably being corrupted right now, as we speak). Source: I grew up Greek and was corrupted as a youth by reading Socrates' words, as transcribed by Plato. Plato did not have enough deamonic powers in him to corrupt a wet noodle.