dirk
Sign in to saveAlso known as dork, durk
thumb|upright|Scottish dirk, blade by Andrew Boog, Edinburgh, c. 1795, Royal Ontario Museum
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- dagger
- Image
- Dirk.png
Show 2 more facts
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
- Commons category
- Dirks
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Highland dirk{{anchor|Scottish}}
- Naval dirk
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|upright|Scottish dirk, blade by Andrew Boog, Edinburgh, c. 1795, Royal Ontario Museum
A dirk is a long-bladed thrusting dagger. Historically, it gained its name from the Highland dirk (Scottish Gaelic ) where it was a personal weapon of officers engaged in naval hand-to-hand combat during the Age of Sail as well as the personal sidearm of Highlanders. It was also the traditional sidearm of the Highland Clansman and later used by the officers, pipers, and drummers of Scottish Highland regiments around 1725 to 1800 and by Japanese naval officers.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “dirk” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.