dagger

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English daggere, also daggar and daggard,^[2] of uncertain origin.^[3][4] Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from Old French dague (“dagger”) in an altered form,^[5][4][6][2] itself from Old Occitan daga or Italian daga.^[5][4][6] The OED notes, however, that no form like dagger is known in Old French, and that Medieval Latin daggarius and daggarium appear to come from English, so that the word looks like an English formation, perhaps from the verb daggen (“to pierce, stab”);^[3] the Shorter Oxford, the ODE and Hoad likewise take it as perhaps dag with the suffix -er, influenced by the French word,^[7][8][9] and Ayto weighs both views.^[10] The Middle English Dictionary notes that it is first recorded in Anglo-Latin and takes it as probably adapted from the French and Provençal words.^[2] Etymonline suggests the ending may be the pejorative suffix -ard, and notes the surname “Dagard” in 1279, presumably for someone who carried a dagger.^[6] The origin of daga is uncertain: one suggestion derives it from Vulgar Latin *dāca (“Dacian knife”), from Latin Dācus (“Dacian”),^{[5][6][10][9]} another from Celtic,^[6][11] and Barnhart notes that Kluge and Corominas both trace it to a possible Celtic origin in the British Isles;^[4] Klein compares Scottish Gaelic dag (“dagger”).^[12] Middle Dutch dagge, Danish daggert and German Degen are from the French word.^[6][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short pointed and edged weapon for thrusting and stabbing: about 1386, in Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale.^[3] It is recorded earlier in Anglo-Latin texts: in 1348 Latin daggerios is glossed as the common name for a kind of knife,^[2] and Barnhart finds dagare in an Anglo-Latin text before 1375.^[4]

Semantic evolution

By the 16th and 17th centuries the dagger was held in the left hand to parry an opponent's rapier.^[6] Figurative uses followed: at daggers' drawing, on the point of fighting, is recorded from 1556,^[3] at daggers drawing is in Pepys in 1665,^[13] and the modern form is at daggers drawn.^[3][14] Shakespeare used dagger for something that wounds deeply (1600),^[3] and to speak or look daggers, to speak or look fiercely, is recorded from his Hamlet (1603).^[3][13] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "a short sword; a poniard".^[15] From the shape came technical senses: an upright piece of wood in a gate or rail (before 1642), a timber in shipbuilding (1850),^[3] and in printing the reference mark † (1706), also called an obelisk.^[3][6][14] The verb, to stab with a dagger, is recorded from 1694, and to mark with a dagger from 1875.^[3]

Timeline

• 1279 – the surname “Dagard”.^[6]
• 1348 – Anglo-Latin daggerios.^[2]
• c. 1386 – a short stabbing weapon.^[3]
• 1556 – at daggers' drawing, about to fight.^[3]
• 1600 – something that wounds deeply.^[3]
• 1603 – speak daggers, in Shakespeare's Hamlet.^[3]
• 1688 – a bayonet (obsolete).^[3]
• 1694 – verb, to stab with a dagger.^[3]
• 1706 – in printing, the mark †.^[3][6]
• 1832 – the name of moths of the genus Acronycta.^[3]
• 1875 – verb, to mark with a dagger.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short knife with a pointed blade, used for stabbing: The museum displays a jewelled dagger from the 15th century.^[14][16][3]
2. In printing, the mark †, used as a reference mark or to show that a person is dead; also called an obelisk.^[14][16][3]
3. Something that wounds or hurts deeply.^[3][7]
4. at daggers drawn: openly hostile.^[14][3]
5. look daggers: to glare angrily.^[14][16][3]
6. (nautical) A piece of timber set upright or slanting in a ship's frame.^[3][7]

Verb

1. (archaic) To stab with a dagger.^[14][16][3]
2. To mark with a dagger in printing.^[14][16][3]

Word family

• daggerlike
• daggerboard
• cloak-and-dagger
• double dagger

Related words

• dag

Usage notes

In Australian and New Zealand English a separate word dagger, formed from dag with the suffix -er, is a person who removes dags from wool, and in the plural means hand-shears.^[3][7] In Yorkshire, What the dagger…? was an exclamation of astonishment.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)