Etymology
The term is associated with Scotland in the Early Modern Era, being attested from about 1600. The term was spelled dork or durk during the 17th century, presumably from the Dutch, Swedish and Danish dolk, via German dolch, tolch from a West Slavic tulich. The exact etymology is unclear; the sound change from -lk to -rk is rather common in Scots and Northern English loanwords from Danish (as in kirk, smirk from Danish kilche, smilke). The modern spelling dirk is probably due to Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary.
The term is also used for "dagger" generically, especially in the context of prehistoric daggers such as the Oxborough dirk.
Read more about this topic: Dirk
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)