different between dagger vs athame

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English daggere, probably adapted from Old French dague (1229), related to Occitan, Italian, Spanish daga, Dutch dagge, German Degen, Middle Low German dagge (“knife's point”), Old Norse daggardr, Welsh dager, dagr, Breton dac, Albanian thikë (“a knife, dagger”), thek (“to stab, to pierce with a sharp object”).

In English attested from the 1380s.The ultimate origin of the word is unclear. Grimm suspects Celtic origin.Others have suggested derivation from an unattested Vulgar Latin *daca "Dacian [knife]", from the Latin adjective d?cus. Chastelain (Dictionaire etymologique, 1750) thought that French dague was a derivation from German dagge, dagen, although not attested until a much later date).

The knightly dagger evolves from the 12th century. Guillaume le Breton (died 1226) uses daca in his Philippide. Other Middle Latin forms include daga, dagga, dagha, dagger, daggerius, daggerium, dagarium, dagarius, diga; the forms with -r- are late 14th century adoptions of the English word).OED points out that there is also an English verb dag (“to stab”) from which this could be a derivation, but the verb is attested only from about 1400.

Relation to Old Armenian ????? (daku, “adze, axe”) has also been suggested. Alternatively, a connection from Proto-Indo-European *d??g-u- and cognate with Ancient Greek ???? (th?g?, “to sharpen, whet”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?dæ??(?)/
• Rhymes: -æ??(r)

Noun

dagger (plural daggers)

2. (weaponry) A stabbing weapon, similar to a sword but with a short, double-edged blade.
4. (typography) The text character †; the obelus.
5. (basketball, American football) A point scored near the end of the game (clutch time) to take or increase the scorer's team lead, so that they are likely to win.

Synonyms

• (stabbing weapon): dirk, knife
• (text character): obelisk, obelus
• (anything that causes pain like a dagger) barb

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• poniard
• rondel
• stiletto

Verb

dagger (third-person singular simple present daggers, present participle daggering, simple past and past participle daggered)

1. To pierce with a dagger; to stab.

Etymology 2

Perhaps from diagonal.

Noun

dagger (plural daggers)

1. A timber placed diagonally in a ship's frame.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

References

Anagrams

• dragge, ragged

English

Etymology

From the non-word arthame from a French manuscript. Arthame is either from a misreading of handwritten Italian arctrave, which is a variant of architrave (“main beam”), or from corruptions of the Medieval Latin word artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into the non-word artauo in an Italian manuscript. The arthame was conflated with the cortel nero ("black knife") by the author Grillot de Givry in 1931, and that conflation was passed on to Gerald Gardner (the creator of Wicca).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??????.me?/, /?????.me?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /????.me?/, /????.me?/, /?æ.???me?/

Noun

athame (plural athames)

1. A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and having a black handle with magical symbols on it. [from 20th c.]
   • James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions (page 22)

     The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch. Gerald Gardner, in Witchcraft Today, called the athame one of the three most essential tools of the Witch.

Alternative forms

• athamé

Translations

Anagrams

• Tehama, hamate