A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually one or two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a cutting or thrusting weapon.[1][2] Daggers have been used throughout human history for close combat confrontations,[3] and many cultures have used adorned daggers in ritual and ceremonial contexts. The distinctive shape and historic usage of the dagger have made it iconic and symbolic. A dagger in the modern sense is a weapon designed for close-proximity combat or self-defense; due to its use in historic weapon assemblages, it has associations with assassination and murders. Double-edged knives, however, play different sorts of roles in different social contexts.
A wide variety of thrusting knives have been described as daggers, including knives that feature only a single cutting edge, such as the European rondel dagger or the Afghan pesh-kabz, or, in some instances, no cutting edge at all, such as the stiletto of the Renaissance. However, in the last hundred years or so, in most contexts, a dagger has certain definable characteristics, including a short blade with a sharply tapered point, a central spine or fuller, and usually two cutting edges sharpened the full length of the blade, or nearly so.[4][5][6][7][8][9] Most daggers also feature a full crossguard to keep the hand from riding forwards onto the sharpened blade edges.[5][10][11]
Daggers are primarily weapons, so knife legislation in many places restricts their manufacture, sale, possession, transport, or use.[1][2]
- ^ a b State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use definition of a dagger, which has been used to describe everything from an ice pick to a folding knife with pointed blade as a 'dagger'. The Missouri Supreme Court used the popular definition of 'dagger' found in Webster's New Universal Dictionary ("a short weapon with a sharp point used for stabbing") to rule that an ordinary pointed knife with four-to-five inch blade constitutes a 'dagger' under the Missouri criminal code.
- ^ a b California Penal Code 12020(a)(24):"dagger" means a knife or other instrument with or without a handguard that is capable of ready use as a stabbing weapon that may inflict great bodily injury or death. The State of California and other jurisdictions have seized upon the popular-use definition of a dagger to classify items ranging from a pointed kitchen knife to a tent stake as a 'dagger' under the law.
- ^ Burton, Walter E., Knives For Fighting Men, Popular Science, July 1944, Vol. 145 No. 1, p. 150: The dagger is classified as a type of fighting knife, while a combat knife is a knife specifically designed for military use, and is thus only certain types of daggers designed for military use are considered to be combat knives. Thus, an ordinary dagger designed for civilian sale and use is only a fighting knife, while the U.S. Army M3 trench knife is both a combat knife and a fighting knife.
- ^ Emerson, Robert L., Legal Medicine and Toxicology, New York: D. Appleton & Co. (1909), p. 80
- ^ a b Cassidy, William L., The Complete Book Of Knife Fighting, ISBN 0-87364-029-2, ISBN 978-0-87364-029-9 (1997), pp. 9–18, 27–36
- ^ Draper, Frank W., A Text-book of Legal Medicine, Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders & Co. (1905), pp. 341–343
- ^ Gross, Hans, Criminal Investigation: A Practical Textbook for Magistrates, Police Officers and Lawyers, London: Sweet & Maxwell (1949), p. 185
- ^ Harding, David, and Cann, Jefferson (eds.), Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to 2000 A.D., The Diagram Visual Group, New York: St. Martin's Press/Macmillan, ISBN 0-312-03950-6, ISBN 978-0-312-03950-9 (1990), pp. 32–33
- ^ Goddard, Wayne, The Wonder of Knifemaking, Iola, WI: Krause Publications, ISBN 1-4402-1684-3, ISBN 978-1-4402-1684-8 (2011), pp. 50, 131–132
- ^ The New Werner Twentieth Century edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 6, Akron, OH: The Werner Co. (1907), p. 669
- ^ Dagger Law & Legal Definition