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Added 29 September 2026

dirk

/dɜːk/ noun

First recorded: 1602 Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about dirk at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A long Scottish dagger with a straight blade.
A ceremonial dagger worn by naval or air force officers in some nations' militaries; formerly, a fighting dagger used by sailors as a boarding weapon.

verb

To stab with a dirk.

verb

To darken.

noun

A penis.
A socially unacceptable person; an oddball.

Origin

Etymology unknown, apparently from Scots dirk. First attested in 1602 as dork, in the later 17th century as durk. The spelling dirk is due to Johnson's Dictionary of 1755. Early quotations as well as Johnson 1755 suggest that the word is of Scottish Gaelic origin, but no such Gaelic word is known. The Gaelic name for the weapon is biodag. Gaelic duirc is merely an 18th-century adoption of the English word. A possible derivation is from the North Germanic/Scandinavian personal name Dirk (short for Diederik), which is used of lock-picking tools (but not of knives or daggers).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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