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- For the typographical mark, see dagger (typography).
A dagger (from Vulgar Latin: 'daca' - a Dacian knife) is a blade weapon (essentially a double-edged knife) used for stabbing, thrusting or as a secondary defense weapon in close combat. In most cases a tang is placed along the center line of the blade.
Much like battle axes, daggers evolved out of prehistoric tools. They were initially made of flint, ivory or even simply bones and were used as a weapon since the earliest periods of human civilization. The earliest daggers appear in the Bronze Age, in the 3rd millennium BC, predating the sword, which essentially developed from oversized daggers. Allthough 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.
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. Until recently military officers wore ceremonial daggers as a symbol of power and soldiers are still equipped with combat knifes.
In any case knives and daggers were always considered secondary or even tertiary weapons. Babylonians, Greeks, Spartans, Persians, Romans, Vikings and crusaders all mainly fought with pole weapons, swords and axes at arms length if not already utilizing bows, spears, slingshots or other long range weapons. Greek and Roman soldiers were issued narrow knives known as sica.
The dagger carries a flair of cattiness, cowardness and treachery due to the many assassinations carried out using them, due to the ease of concealment and surprise someone wielding one could inflict on an unexpecting victim. A thrust to the heart most certainly results in an instant and silent death. The most famous victim of all is certainly Julius Caesar who suffered from more than 23 stab wounds from an irate Senate.
From the year 1250 onward, gravestones and other contemporary images show knights with a dagger or combat knife at their side. The shaft and blade shapes began to resemble smaller versions of swords and led to fashionable ornament scabbards and shafts in the late 15th century.
When sword fighting became more and more sophisticated and in medieval times, often due to a matter of chivalrous honour, knives and daggers temporarily lost their popularity as weapons only to regain it during the Renaissance when plated body armor proved susceptible to slick needle-thin weapons with two or even up to four edges, able to penetrate upwards of two layers of metal.
With the development of firearms, the dagger lost more and more of its usefulness in military combat: multipurpose knives and handguns replaced them. However, beginning with the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War and the World War I, another form of dagger - the bayonet - was used to turn rifles into spears by mounting them on the barrel.
Although not technically a dagger, the rondel, a stabbing weapon with a triangular or rectangular cross-section, is commonly included in the term.
Some daggers also have weighted blades, and are meant for throwing at enemies. The weighted blade provides momentum and accuracy.