Stiletto
A stiletto is a short knife or dagger with a long slender blade of various designs primarily used as a stabbing weapon. Its narrow shape, ending in a rigid pointed end, allows it to penetrate deeply. Most stiletti are not suited for cutting, even with edged examples. A typical early stiletto had a one-piece cast-metal handle. The blade was hammer-forged in a triangular blade cross section without any sharpened edges. Other examples have round, square, and diamond cross sections.
The Italian word "stiletto" comes from the Latin stilus meaning: "a stake; a pointed instrument".[1] The stiletto, also called a misericorde ("mercy"), began to gain fame during the High Middle Ages, when it was the secondary weapon of knights.[2] It was used to finish off a fallen or severely wounded heavily armored opponent. The pointed, stout blade could easily pass through most mail or find its way through gaps in a knight's plate armor. A severely wounded opponent, who was not expected to survive, would be given a "mercy strike" (French coup de grâce), hence the name miséricorde. Later the Gunner's Stiletto became a tool for clearing cannon-fuse touch holes; used in the manner of an automotive oil dipstick, they were often scribed with marks indicating levels of powder charges for ranging distance.[3]
The word stiletto may sometimes be used in American English to refer to a switchblade. Stiletto may also be used specifically for a knife blade exhibiting the same triangular cross-section or even hollow grind, such as a small sword, rapier, or épée.
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The World Wars
Hand to hand combat in the trenches of World War I created a new need for stiletti. Several versions were made by various countries, often grouped together in one class, nicknamed the trench knife.[4] Likewise, World War II saw a resurgence of the stiletto style in the form of several variants including the U.S. Marine Raider Stiletto, Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife and V-42 combat knife.[5]
1950s folding knives
Collectors often refer to the handle and cross guard style found on Italian 1950's folding picklock switchblades as a stiletto.[6] The blade options included dagger blades, clip points, bayonet points and wavy Indonesian style kris blades. Early 1950s stiletti had thick blades in proportion to the height and length, resembling the renaissance knife, making them desirable. Modern production Italian knives of this style tend to have conventional thin flat blades, and are rarely hollow ground.[7]
Colloquial and literary uses
In American English, the term stiletto occasionally refers to a switchblade which has a telescoping blade.[6] A popular brand of switchblade of this type manufactured in the 1950s was branded "Rizzuto Estileto Milano." Although use of the word "stiletto" to refer to small, pointed daggers far outdates references to switchblades, as stiletto itself is a loanword from Italian—a diminutive of stilo, for stylus or dagger, from the Latin stilus.[8] The word "stiletto" was also trademarked in the early 20th century for a brand of woodworking tools. Additionally, a stiletto heel is a type of woman's shoe with a particularly long and thin high heel.
Films
- In the film Gladiator, an anachronistic stiletto is used by Commodus to stab Maximus.
- Pasqual "The Plague" Acosta from Smokin' Aces is shown to use dual stilettos.
- In the Japanese movie Ichi the Killer, Kakihara tortures many victims using stilettos.
- In Red Dragon, Dr. Hannibal Lector stabs Will Graham in the stomach with a stiletto.
- A stiletto is the weapon of choice used by 'The Needle' in Ken Follett's best seller Eye of the Needle, which tells the story of a German spy in World War II.
- A stiletto as switchblade is used in the famous knife fight scene in West Side Story.
- In both the 1957 and 1997 versions of the film 12 Angry Men, a stiletto knife with a telescoping blade is a key plot point and a key piece of evidence in the trial of a young Hispanic boy.
References
- ↑ University of Notre Dame online Latin dictionary (http://archives.nd.edu/latgramm.htm)
- ↑ Bradbury, Jim (2004). The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare (Hardcover). Routledge. pp. 392. ISBN 978-0415221269.
- ↑ Henry, Chris (2005). English Civil War Artillery 1642–51. Osprey Publishing. pp. 48. ISBN 978-1841767666.
- ↑ Johnson, Thomas M., LTC (Ret.) & Wittmann, Thomas T.: Collecting the Edged Weapons of Imperial Germany, Vol. I, Privately published, 1988, p. 317. ISBN 0-9600906-0-6
- ↑ Levine, Bernard (1990). "IN THE BEGINNING THE ORIGINAL U.S. MARINE CORPS KNIVES OF WORLD WAR II". http://pweb.netcom.com/~brlevine/usmc42-1.txt.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Langston, Richard (2001). Collector's Guide to Switchblade Knives: An Illustrated Historical and Price Reference. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press. pp. 224. ISBN 1581602839.
- ↑ Zinser, Fuller(2003)Switchblades of Italy,Turner Publishing. ISBN 1-56311-933-1
- ↑ "stiletto - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary". Merriam-Webster, Inc.. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stiletto. Retrieved 2009-08-25.
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Book:Knives and daggers 
Category:Knives