demonology

noun

de·​mon·​ol·​o·​gy ˌdē-mə-ˈnä-lə-jē 

1

: the study of demons or evil spirits

2

: belief in demons : a doctrine of evil spirits

3

: a catalog of enemies

the liberal creed at that time put Big Business in a central place in its demonology

—Carl Kaysen

demonological

ˌdē-mə-nə-ˈlä-ji-kəl 

adjective

demonologist

ˌdē-mə-ˈnä-lə-jist 

noun

Examples of demonology in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even for those of us with a skeptical disposition, the cache of symbols, metaphors, narratives, and characters which demonology offers remains some of the most powerful ways of discussing subjects ranging from why evil exists to how justice should be realized. —TIME, 28 Oct. 2023

Magic words and letters play their part in these dogmas of demonology, which dip far down into the glooming depths of human credulity. —Alexander Sammon, Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2022

Crow studied demonology and exorcisms and may have traveled with the 18-year-old to Spain to perform an exorcism. —Warren Kulo | [e-mail], al, 26 July 2023

Crow wrote a thesis on demonology and exorcism while in seminary. —William Thornton | [e-mail], al, 16 Aug. 2023

The Veil — as in the veil between the living and the dead — focuses on voodoo, demonology, witchcraft and other ways of interactions with the spirit world. —Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant, 29 Sep. 2022

The 92-year-old Soros must be working around the clock in a frenzy of diabolical conspiracies to justify his starring role in GOP demonology. —Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 23 Mar. 2023

While TikTok and Tumblr have long been brimming with a newly abundant witch culture, believers in magic also populate a darker, more occultic level of the internet — and John R. King IV, whose long-running blog details his explorations of demonology, is one of its most prominent practitioners. —Peter Rubin, Longreads, 19 May 2022

That's why names like Bill Ayers, who founded the terrorist group Weather Underground, and Herbert Marcuse, who taught Davis philosophy, and Saul Alinsky, who tried (unsuccessfully) to reconcile the old and new lefts, acquired prominent positions in the demonology of the right. —Samuel Goldman, The Week, 6 Jan. 2022

Word History

Etymology

demon + -o- + -logy

Note: Word introduced by King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) in his Daemonologie, in forme of a Dialogue, diuided into three bookes (Edinburgh, 1597). New Latin daemonologia occurs commonly in the 17th century, but is apparently not attested earlier than King James' dissertation in English.

First Known Use

1597, in the meaning defined at sense 1