byknife

English

Etymology

From by or by- +‎ knife. Compare Scots byknife, byknyfe.

Noun

byknife (plural byknives)

1. A secondary knife carried beside a dagger or short sword.
   • 1987, Church Monuments: Journal of the Church Monuments Society, volume 2, page 5:

     This may represent either the top of some form of closure, or the pommel-cap of a byknife in the front of the sheath of the dagger, the remains of which are represented as if hung between the two suspension loops, its haft in front of the belt and its sheath behind the body of the pouch. It is of a type known to contemporaries as a ballock knife, that is a dagger with a phalliform haft or grip. An example of a byknife with just such a fleur-de-lis pommel is in the collection of the Canterbury City Museum.