Language, Literature & Daggers

A dagger is a short pointed knife used as a weapon, especially formerly.
He sheathed his dagger again.
Two English expressions link daggers with literature:

* Cloak and dagger

Cloak and dagger is a term sometimes used to refer to situations involving intrigue, secrecy, espionage, or mystery.
The phrase has two possible origins. One dates from the early 19th century and is a translation from the French de cape et d'épée and Spanish de capa y espada (literally "of cloak and sword"). These phrases referred to a genre of drama in which the main characters literally wore these items. In 1840, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, "In the afternoon read La Dama Duende of Calderón - a very good comedy of 'cloak and sword'." Charles Dickens subsequently used the phrase "cloak and dagger" a year later. The imagery of these two items became associated with the archetypical spy or assassin: the cloak, worn to hide one's identity or remain hidden from view, and the dagger, a concealable and silent weapon.

* Is this a dagger which I see before me?

This is one of the best-known lines from Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1605. Shakespeare used the image of a dagger in many of his plays. In fact there are few of his plays that don't have a reference to daggers in some form - most commonly deployed as symbolic of treachery. In the Scottish play, Macbeth has a vision of a dagger with blood on it in the air in front of him, pointing toward the King Duncan's chamber and perhaps indicating that he should use it to follow through on his and Lady Macbeth's plan of murdering the King.

Other language expressions with the word dagger are:

at daggers drawn with somebody
About to or ready to fight, as in Are Felix and Oscar still at daggers drawn over the rent? Although daggers today are rarely if ever used to avenge an insult or issue a challenge to a duel, this idiom remains current. Its figurative use dates from about 1800.

look daggers
Glare, stare fiercely, as in When she started to discuss their finances, he looked daggers at her. This metaphoric term, likening an angry expression to a dagger's thrust, dates from ancient times and has appeared in English since about 1600.