different between dagger vs misericord

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 1200–50, from Middle English misericorde (“an act of clemency”) from Old French, from Latin misericordia (“pity”).

Noun

misericord (countable and uncountable, plural misericords)

1. Relaxation of monastic rules.
2. The room in a monastery for monks granted such relaxation.
3. A ledge, sometimes ornately carved, attached to a folding church seat to provide support for a person standing for long periods; a subsellium.
   • 1969, M. D. Anderson, The Iconography of British Misericords, G. L. Remnant, A Catalogue of Misericords in Great Britain, page xxiii,

     Misericords are a very humble form of medieval art and it is unlikely that the most distinguished carvers of any period were employed in making them, except, perhaps, during their apprentice years.

   • 1999, Mariko Miyazaki, Misericord Owls and Medieval Anti-semitism, Debra Hassig, Debra Higgs Strickland (editors), The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature, page 23,

     In this essay I will focus primarily on the subject of the owl in order to illustrate how bestiary imagery was modified and developed in late medieval public church decoration, primarily in the form of the sculpted choir-seats known as misericords. The owl provides a good case study of this process as it was an especially popular misericord motif and its artistic and literary characterizations are largely informed by—but not limited to—the bestiaries.

   • 2007, F. E. Howard, F. H. Crossley, English Church Woodwork, page 155,

     The construction of a misericord stall is very peculiar. The shaped standards or elbows are cut out of wide planks. They are notched over a deep and massive bottom rail (to which the misericords are hinged in many cases), and are housed into the massive capping, which is very wide and hollowed out with semicircular recesses to form curved backs for the stalls.

4. A medieval dagger, used for the mercy stroke to a wounded foe.

Synonyms

• (subsellium): mercy seat

Translations

References

• “misericord”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ?ISBN
• “misericord” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.