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A dagger is a knife with a very sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.〔State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use definition of a dagger, which has been used to describe everything from an ice pick to a folding knife with pointed blade as a 'dagger'. The Missouri Supreme Court used the popular definition of 'dagger' found in Webster's New Universal Dictionary ("a short weapon with a sharp point used for stabbing") to rule that an ordinary pointed knife with four-to-five inch blade constitutes a 'dagger' under the Missouri criminal code.〕〔California Penal Code 12020(a)(24):"dagger" means a ''knife or other instrument'' with or without a handguard that is ''capable of ready use as a stabbing weapon'' that may inflict great bodily injury or death. The State of California and other jurisdictions have seized upon the popular-use definition of a dagger to classify items ranging from a pointed kitchen knife to a tent stake as a 'dagger' under the law.〕 The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations.〔Burton, Walter E., ''Knives For Fighting Men'', Popular Science, July 1944, Vol. 145 No. 1, p. 150: The dagger is classified as a type of fighting knife, while a ''combat knife'' is a knife specifically designed for military use, and is thus only certain types of daggers designed for military use are considered to be combat knives. Thus, an ordinary dagger designed for civilian sale and use is only a fighting knife, while the U.S. Army M3 trench knife is both a combat knife ''and'' a fighting knife.〕 Many ancient cultures used adorned daggers in ritual and ceremonial purposes, a trend which continues to the present time in the form of art knives. The distinctive shape and historic usage of the dagger have made it iconic and symbolic. Over the years, the term has been used to describe a wide variety of thrusting knives, including knives that feature only a single cutting edge, such as the European rondel dagger or the Persian pesh-kabz, or, in some instances, no cutting edge at all, such as the stiletto of the Renaissance. However, over the last hundred years or so, authorities have recognized that the dagger, in its contemporary or mature form, has certain definable characteristics, including a short blade with a sharply tapered point, a central spine or fuller, and (usually) two cutting edges sharpened the full length of the blade, or nearly so.〔Emerson, Robert L., ''Legal Medicine and Toxicology'', New York: D. Appleton & Co. (1909), p. 80〕〔Cassidy, William L., ''The Complete Book Of Knife Fighting'', ISBN 0-87364-029-2, ISBN 978-0-87364-029-9 (1997), pp. 9–18, 27–36〕〔Draper, Frank W., ''A Text-book of Legal Medicine'', Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders & Co. (1905), pp. 341–343〕〔Gross, Hans, ''Criminal Investigation: A Practical Textbook for Magistrates, Police Officers and Lawyers'', London: Sweet & Maxwell (1949), p. 185〕〔Harding, David, and Cann, Jefferson (eds.), ''Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to 2000 A.D.'', The Diagram Visual Group, New York: St. Martin's Press/Macmillan, ISBN 0-312-03950-6, ISBN 978-0-312-03950-9 (1990), pp. 32–33〕〔Goddard, Wayne, ''The Wonder of Knifemaking'', Iola, WI: Krause Publications, ISBN 1-4402-1684-3, ISBN 978-1-4402-1684-8 (2011), pp. 50, 131–132〕 Most daggers also feature a full crossguard to keep the hand from riding forwards onto the sharpened blade edges. Another distinctive feature of the modern dagger is that it is designed to position the blade horizontally when using a conventional palm grip, enabling the user to slash right or left as well as thrust the blade between an opponent's ribs.〔 The twin full-length edges enable the user to make broad slashes (cuts) using either a forehand or backhand arm movement, while the sharp, acutely pointed tip makes the knife an effective thrusting or stabbing weapon.〔〔''The New Werner Twentieth Century edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica'', Volume 6, Akron, OH: The Werner Co. (1907), p. 669〕 This versatility distinguishes the modern dagger from more specialized thrusting knives, like the stiletto.〔〔''(Dagger Law & Legal Definition )''〕 ==Early history== Much like battle axes, daggers evolved out of prehistoric tools. In Neolithic times, daggers were made of materials such as flint, ivory or bone and were used as weapons since the earliest periods of human civilization. The earliest metal daggers are of copper and appear in the early Bronze Age, in the 3rd millennium BCE, predating the Bronze Age sword.〔Sheridan, Alison, ''A Beaker Period Copper Dagger Blade from the Silees River near Ross Lough, Co. Fermanagh'', Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 56 (1993), pp. 61–62〕 From pre-dynastic Egypt,〔Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, Cyril John Gadd, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, 1970〕 daggers were adorned as ceremonial objects with golden hilts and later even more ornate and varied construction. One early silver dagger was recovered with midrib design. Traditionally, some military and naval officers wore dress daggers as symbols of power, and modern soldiers are still equipped with combat knives and knife bayonets. Copper daggers of Early Minoan III were recovered at Knossos.〔C. Michael Hogan, (''Knossos fieldnotes'', Modern Antiquarian (2007) )〕 In ancient Egypt, daggers were usually made of copper or bronze, while royalty had gold weapons. The 1924 opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun revealed two daggers, one with a gold blade, and one of smelted iron. Iron ore was not found in Egypt, making the iron dagger rare, and the context suggests that the iron dagger was valued on a level equal to that of its ceremonial gold counterpart. The iron dagger is actually a majority iron content alloy that is considered to be of meteoric origin.〔http://www.incose-cc.org/2010/03/king-tutankhamuns-dagger/〕 One of the earliest objects made of smelted iron dates is a dagger dating to before 2000 BCE, found in a context that suggests it was treated as an ornamental object of great value. Found in a Hattic royal tomb dated about 2500 BCE, at Alaca Höyük in northern Anatolia, the dagger has a smelted iron blade and a gold handle. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dagger」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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