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• cacodemon •

Pronunciation: kæ-kê-dee-mên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. An evil spirit. 2. The Devil.

Notes: Some British speakers prefer to spell this word cacodaemon. It has one lexical relative, an adjective with two variants: cacodemonic and cacodemonical. If you need an adverb you must add the -ly to the longer form: cacodemonically. It is related to cacophony, often mispronounced [kaw-kæ-fê-ni]. The correct pronunciation is, of course, [kæ-kaw-fê-ni].

In Play: Cacodemons are the opposite of angels: "Other people have guardian angels looking over their lives; I must have a cacodemon looking over mine." However, today's Good Word is just as susceptible to figurativity: "I feel like cacodemons are fighting it out in my stomach over who is going to digest my dinner." (Resist the temptation to use this word in reference to the little brats who merely disturb you.)

Word History: Today's Good Word originated as Greek kakodaimon, a compound noun made up of kakos "bad, ugly" + daimon "spirit, deity, lesser god". Kakos comes from Proto-Indo-European kaka- "defecate". It survives to this day in English caca "poop". Poppycock has nothing to do with flowers or roosters, but is the leavings of a Dutch word poppekak "doll poop", again with a remnant of kaka.

Greek daimon is believed to go back to dai-mon "divider, distributor (of destinies)". If this is true, it also came down to Old English as tima "time, period", Modern English time, which is divided and proportioned regularly. (Let us all wish Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira no cacodemons, lest they interfere with his editing the Good Word series and recommending words like today's.)

Our weather this winter is possessed by some cacodemons.

funny how the avatar just comes and goes.
No explanation. Computers can be so
frustrating.

Thanks to whomever put the avatar back.

Luke, it appears your computer, like mine occasionally, has cacodemons in it. "Bugs" just seems too nice a word to use when it comes to what happens to my computer sometimes. I mostly just use the word "demons", though.

Perhaps, considering the derivation of coca.
But I have anger management problems, it's a
character defect (perhaps cocadefect), and I
gets real piqued when the machine dosn't work.
Thanks for the 'calm down'.

The situation you described is endemic to computers. They have a "logic" of their own.

Sad but true. I, too, have anger management issues from time to time. That's my endemic nature. One of my biggest pet peeves? When I read the setup instructions on some device or construction which says if you do Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3 the results will be Finished Product 4. So I do Steps 1-3 exactly as directed and the Finished Product doesn't work as it should. That really ticks me off, which doesn't help anything. Oh, well.

I cannot even read the directions and make any sense
out of them. It's like I need a hologram of what
I just read and then need to attach something onto it.
Going back and re-reading is of little help.

The writers of these manuals would make lousy teachers,
because they assume there is something to build on
when they write the next step, and the first one has not
yet been learned because it was in another not understood
language.

Computer directions are notorious for being written in English by someone who uses our language as their third.