demonism
English
Alternative forms
- daemonism
- dæmonism
Etymology
demon + -ism
Noun
demonism (countable and uncountable, plural demonisms)
- (uncountable) Belief in, or worship of demons or devils.
- 1699, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Of Virtue, and the Belief of a Deity, in An Inquiry Concerning Virtue in Two Discourses, London: A. Bell et al., p. 10,
- […] if he believes more of the prevalency of an ill designing Principle than of a good one, he is then more a Daemonist than he is a Theist, and may be called a Daemonist from the side to which the balance most inclines. ¶ All these sorts both of Daemonism, Polytheism, Atheism, and Theism, may be mixed […]
- 1957, Muriel Spark, The Comforters, New York: Avon, 1965, Part 2, Chapter 8, p. 171,
- It is very much to be doubted if Mervyn Hogarth had ever in his life given more than a passing thought to any black art or occult science. Certainly he was innocent of prolonged interest in, let alone any practice of, diabolism, witchcraft, demonism, or such cult.
- 1699, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Of Virtue, and the Belief of a Deity, in An Inquiry Concerning Virtue in Two Discourses, London: A. Bell et al., p. 10,
- (uncountable, often figuratively) The quality of being demonic.
- 1915, Henry James, letter to Evan Charteris dated 22 January, 1915 in Percy Lubbock (ed.), The Letters of Henry James, London: Macmillan, Volume 2, p. 453,
- What a pitiful horror indeed must that Ypres desolation and desecration be—a baseness of demonism.
- 1925, Edmund James Banfield, Last Leaves from Dunk Island, Part 1, Chapter 1,
- What significant illustration of the demonism of the wind does a fallen palm present!
- 1953, Roland Gelatt, Music Makers: Some Outstanding Musical Performers of Our Day, New York: Knopf, “Sir Thomas Beecham,” p. 31,
- Almost alone among contemporary conductors, he avoids the path of demonism; he takes music in his stride and does not press it with febrile intensity.
- 1915, Henry James, letter to Evan Charteris dated 22 January, 1915 in Percy Lubbock (ed.), The Letters of Henry James, London: Macmillan, Volume 2, p. 453,
- (countable) An act or event attributed to demons or devils; an evil act.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 41”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:
- All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.
- 1919, Thomas Burke, “Chinatown Revisited” in Out and About: A Note-Book of London in War-Time, London: George Allen & Unwin, p. 47,
- So many boys, so many places have disappeared. Blue Gate Fields, scene of many an Asiatic demonism, is gone.
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Anagrams
- medimnos, misnomed
Romanian
Etymology
From French démonisme.
Noun
demonism n (uncountable)
- demonism
Declension
declension of demonism (singular only)
| singular | ||
|---|---|---|
| n gender | indefinite articulation | definite articulation |
| nominative/accusative | (un) demonism | demonismul |
| genitive/dative | (unui) demonism | demonismului |
| vocative | demonismule | |