Modern Winchester Riot Dagger and sheath

A dagger (from Vulgar Latin: 'daca' - a Dacian knife) is a typically double-edged blade used for stabbing or thrusting. Winchester or Winton ( archaic) is a historic city in southern England, with a population of around 40000 within a radius of its centre Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin The Dacians ( Lat Daci, Gr Dákai) were a Thracian people the ancient inhabitants of Dacia (located in the area A knife is a handheld sharp-edged instrument consisting of handle attached to a Blade used for cutting A stabbing is the penetration of a sharp or pointed object at close range They often fulfill the role of a secondary defense weapon in close combat. The term companion weapon is used in Historical European martial arts to refer to an item used in the non-sword hand while fencing with a Rapier or sword Close combat has two close meanings which sometimes overlap Close quarters battle and Hand to hand combat. In most cases, a tang extends into the handle along the centreline of the blade. The tang of a Sword or fixed-blade Knife is that part of the Blade extending into and usually through the grip that is fastened to it A blade is the flat part of a Tool, Weapon, or Machine (such as a fan) that normally has a cutting edge and/or pointed end typically made

Daggers may be roughly differentiated from knives on the basis that daggers are intended primarily for stabbing whereas knives are usually single-edged and intended mostly for cutting. However, many or perhaps most knives and daggers are usually very capable of either stabbing or cutting.

Much like battle axes, daggers evolved out of prehistoric tools. A broader definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other They were initially made of flint, ivory, or even bone and were used as weapons since the earliest periods of human civilization. Flint (or flintstone) is a hard sedimentary Cryptocrystalline form of the Mineral Quartz, categorized as a variety of Chert Ivory is formed from Dentine and constitutes the bulk of the Teeth and Tusks of animals such as the Elephant, Hippopotamus, Bones are rigid organs that form part of the Endoskeleton of Vertebrates They function to move support and protect the various organs of the body produce The earliest metal daggers appear in the Bronze Age, in the 3rd millennium BC, predating the sword, which essentially developed from oversized daggers. The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age. It represents a period of time in which Imperialism, or the desire to conquer grew to prominence Although the standard dagger would at no time be very effective against axes, spears, or even maces due to its limited reach, it was an important step towards the development of a more useful close-combat weapon, the sword. A mace is a simple Weapon that uses a heavy head on the end of a handle to deliver powerful blows

Celtic dagger and sheath

However, almost from the very beginning of Egyptian history, daggers were adorned as ceremonial objects with golden hilts and later even more ornate and varied construction. A ceremonial weapon is an object used for ceremonial purposes to display power or authority Traditionally, military and naval officers wore dress daggers as symbols of power, and modern soldiers are still equipped with combat knives and knife bayonets. A combat knife is a large Knife designed for military or paramilitary use A knife bayonet is a knife or short sword which can be used both as a Bayonet or fighting or utility Knife.

Historically, knives and daggers were always considered secondary or even tertiary weapons. Most cultures mainly fought with pole weapons, swords, and axes at arm's length if not already utilizing bows, spears, slings, or other long-range weapons. A pole weapon or polearm is a close combat Weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is placed on the end of a long shaft typically of Wood A sling is a projectile Weapon typically used to throw a blunt Projectile such as a stone Roman soldiers were issued a pugio. The pugio was a small Dagger used by Roman soldiers as a sidearm

The dagger is symbolically ambiguous. It may be associated with cowardice and treachery due to the ease of concealment and surprise that someone could inflict with one on an unexpecting victim — many assassinations were reportedly carried out using one. Victims of such assassinations included Julius Caesar, who suffered from 23 stab wounds from irate members of the Roman Senate. The Roman Senate was a political institution in Ancient Rome. On the other hand, the dagger may symbolically suggest a determination to courageously close with the enemy.

From the year 1250 onward, gravestones and other contemporary images show knights with a dagger or combat knife at their side. The hilt and blade shapes began to resemble smaller versions of swords and led to a fashion of ornamented sheaths and hilts in the late-15th century.

A use on the battlefield could be against a heavy armored opponent. Heavy armor would also mean great fatigue and after an opponent had been disabled by blows with a heavier weapon (bludgeoning him but not actually harming him) the dagger could be inserted into the eye-slits of the helm killing the downed knight more or less instantly.

The increasing sophistication of sword fighting and a prevailing sense of chivalrous honour caused knives and daggers to lose their popularity as weapons in Medieval times, only to regain it during the Renaissance in the form of the stiletto, which proved to be very effective against the plated body armor popular at the time. Chivalric order Chivalry is a term related to the Medieval institution of Knighthood. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere A stiletto is a short Knife or Dagger, with a long slender blade of various designs

In that age, books offering instruction on the use of weapons prescribed that the dagger be held in the hand with the blade pointing from the heel of the hand, and used by making downward jabs. This technique would differentiate a dagger wound from that of a sword. A sword wound was noble and, as the possession of swords was limited to aristocrats, could be caused only by such weapons. Murder by dagger thrusts was ignoble, and could be done by commoners or vengeful aristocrats who wished to remain anonymous. This is why a group of political murders is called Night of the Long Knives, although daggers were not literally used.

With the development of firearms, the dagger lost more and more of its usefulness in military combat; multipurpose knives/bayonets and handguns replaced them. A firearm is a Tool that projects either single or multiple Projectiles at high velocity through a controlled explosion However, beginning with the 17th century, another form of dagger — the plug bayonet and later the socket bayonet — was used to convert muskets and other longarms into spears by mounting them on the barrel. A bayonet (from French baïonnette) is a Knife - Dagger - or spike-shaped Weapon designed to fit on or over the muzzle A musket is a muzzle -loaded Smoothbore Long gun, which is intended to be fired from the shoulder The term long gun is used to describe classes of Firearm and Cannon with longer barrels than other classes This is an article about a particle accelerator For uses of spear, see Spear or Spear (disambiguation.

Daggers achieved public notoriety in the 20th century as ornamental uniform regalia during the fascist dictatorships of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, but dress daggers were used by several other countries as well, including Japan. As combat equipment they were carried by many infantry and commando forces during the Second World War. In Military science, the term commando can refer to an individual a Military unit, or a raiding style of military operation. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including British commandos had an especially slender dagger, the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, developed from that used in Shanghai. The Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife is a double-edged stiletto with a foil grip developed by William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes in U.S. Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific carried a similar fighting dagger, and others were fashioned for American forces and their allies from cut-down World War I Patton sabers. The Marine Raiders were elite units established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All For the 19th century Scottish jurist/politician see George Patton Lord Glenalmond.

Although not technically a dagger, the rondel, a stabbing weapon with a circular, triangular, or rectangular cross-section, is commonly included in the term.

See also

• List of daggers