In Gaelic the words mean 'dubh' (black) and 'sgian' (dagger). Some say it's called this because the handle was made of bog oak which was jet black in appearance. This was a very hard wood and useful for the purpose. The Highlander lacked confidence in paper money, and adorned most of his wearing apparel with silver and precious stones.
He carried most of his worldly wealth on his person because he did not trust it to banks.
The black dagger was always hidden and very often that place was under his oxter (his armpit), and some say the 'black' really has nothing to do with color, that it implies "covert", "concealed".
When a Highlander visited a house on his travels he would leave all his weapons at the front door, except for his stabbing dagger, since back then it was not safe to be totally unarmed, not because he was afraid of his host, but he feared intrusions from the outside. So to be courteous to his host and still retain his dagger, he would remove it from its place of concealment and put it where his host could see it, normally sticking it into the top of his stocking, on the right hand side if he was right
handed, and on the left if he was left handed.
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