It was always "demon" (spelled daemon or dæmon), as in a spiritual attendant. Christian mythology has poisoned the word, and anyone who says "daymon" to not offend them is a coward.

See here:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/demon

Edit: When I say it was always pronounced "demon", I mean the nerds who started calling a small background program daemon pronounced it "demon".

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 10 hours ago

While offending Christians is welcome in this day and age, the marked Latin and Greek history of the word, originating as "daímōn" with an 'a', and the fact that 'æ' exists, both make "dæmon" a cool enough spelling that I'm keeping it, and the fancier spelling helps keeping safe and separate from the christofascist corruption of the word for when I am more in mind of the mechanics and purposes rather than having to be a soldier in someone else's cultural war.

[–] spartanatreyu@programming.dev 17 points 1 day ago

I say daymon not to avoid offence, but since it sounds cooler than demon.

A demon sounds like a fiend that has only been around for at most a few hundred years, but a daemon sounds like it has been around for a few thousand so it is much more dangerous.

[–] BetterDev@programming.dev 23 points 1 day ago

Calm your tits (meaning your birds), I say "daymon", and I relish any opportunity to offend the overly devout.

My reason is simple: I learned the word by reading it and sounding it out, and that's more badass than "haha I say demon because I'm edgy"