Sgian Dubh

A sgian dubh is a small, single-edged knife worn as part of traditional Scottish Highland dress, tucked into the top of the kilt hose with only its hilt visible. Its name comes from Scottish Gaelic sgian, knife, and dubh, black, with dubh also carrying a secondary sense of hidden, and it is sometimes rendered in English as skean-dhu or skene-dhu. The knife is thought to have developed from the sgian-achlais, a larger dagger concealed under the arm and used by Scots from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, with the shift to the stocking top prompted by Highland custom that a visitor reveal any hidden weapon on entering a friend's home after concealed weapons were outlawed in the late 1500s. Today the sgian dubh is worn mainly as ceremonial dress rather than as a working tool, with everyday versions often carrying a plain stainless steel or even plastic blade, alongside decorative versions with carved handles. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/