Afridi Dagger ?

[Norman McCormick]

Hi Lou,
I'll take the guy with the Swiss Army pocket dagger and you take the guy with the large Khyber 'thingummybob'.
My Regards,
Norman.

[Lew]

Lets just call them sharp nasty pointy things that should cover it

[ariel]

Lou, don't be a party pooper :-)
I think it is rather interesting.
I think the distinction is not in construction per se, but in purpose: daggers always have some military tinge. Knives, on the other hand, can be anything, including, importantly, perfectly peaceful purposes: kitchen, cheese, butter, paring etc.
It so happened that English has two separate words for a short weapon: dagger and knife.
Russian, on the other hand, has only one: nozh=knife. Therefore, anything shorter than saber or sword was a "nozh". They realized that it was insufficient and utilized a (Caucasian) Kindjal as a matrix word. Thus, you see definition like " Jambiya, an Arabian kindjal", "Kris, an Indonesian kindjal", " Nazi SS kindjal", etc, etc. for any short weapon with military purpose. Exceptions are naval dagger "kortik" (probably modified "kortelas", a short naval sword), and sapper's "tessack" ( likely, from German "dussak" or a derivative of Russian verb "tesat'", " to chop).

Words get different meanings. I was told, for example, that in the Balkans, yataghans are knives/daggers, but a full size one is called handjar.
Jim's favorite example is kaskara that is known as such everywhere, except in ...Sudan. The Sudanese call it Sayf.

[fearn]

Good points Ariel.

It's fascinating that the sword/saber/knife/dagger/etc continuum of weapons seems so prone to this kind of linguistic weirdness. It shows up in other weapons (notably halberds), but outside of weapon terms, the best example I know of is the shrub vs. tree pair.

I suspect that swords, knives, and daggers get into this because there are issues of violence, power, and utility all coming into play. A knife is a fundamental tool, but a military knife is also a symbol of power and maybe that's why they get different names? Just a guess.

Best,

F

[Bryan.H]

Originally Posted by fearn

Good points Ariel.

It's fascinating that the sword/saber/knife/dagger/etc continuum of weapons seems so prone to this kind of linguistic weirdness. It shows up in other weapons (notably halberds), but outside of weapon terms, the best example I know of is the shrub vs. tree pair.

I suspect that swords, knives, and daggers get into this because there are issues of violence, power, and utility all coming into play. A knife is a fundamental tool, but a military knife is also a symbol of power and maybe that's why they get different names? Just a guess.

Best,

F

Years ago I read "The Book of the Sword" by Captain Richard Francis Burton. I think it must be one of the earliest ethnographic edged weapons treatise written. Even given it's British-centric, Victorian era cultural context, it's still an excellent resource from a man who used weapons in practice every other day. He explores the notions of edged weapons , from hunter-gathers tools through to swords of state, and the evolution of swords, along a 'spectrum'. He tends to use local names given to edged weapons, as well as notes the names given to swords/ daggers/ knives etc in french and spanish terminology, to differentiate between types. I enjoy reading this philosophy of swords very much! All very interesting.