Talk:Shiv (weapon)

message: what about shiv as a verb. to shiv somone? just wondering.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.135.1.91 (talk) 17:39, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Initial posts

message: The article originally said "Shanking is a popular prison assassination method." The term "assassination" usually refers to important people, especially leaders and other government officials. I changed the sentence to read "Many people have been killed by attackers using shanks while serving time in prison." I think this conveys the right idea.
: Actually, "assassination" means murder for political reason.  It doesn't matter how important the victim is ( to everyone but the assaliant - to whom the victim is obvsiouly very important ).  DigitalEnthusiast 18:21, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I agree with you."Moving in with the shiv" , "Shiv is closing on him" and such sentences have been used in the mini series "The Prison" 3part storyline in Batman:Shadow of the Bat" comics by DC;where the characters attributed with speaking/narrators are all criminals inside the prison where Batman goes in disguise of a new inmate to investigate a series of murders unaccountable for the suspects have the alibi of being inside the prison during the time the murders took place.Hence,"Killing" is more precise for "Shiv" used as a weapon by inmates of a prison.asydwaters 17:49, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Assassination? 

message: Look up "shiv" and "shank" in a dictionary (go ahead, I'll wait...) and you'll see that the words don't (originally) mean quite what Wikipedia currently says.  They are slangy pop-culture terms to begin with, and it's certainly nothing to get worked up (or shivved, or shanked) about, but in any case, here is what the words were supposed to mean before they became such darlings of the modern pop-culture movie/TV prison show/gamer set:
Shiv means a knife as a weapon; it's a slang term.  It could be anything you'd stab and/or cut somebody with; a stiletto, a dagger, a chef's knife, or, not ideally, a sharpened toothbrush.  
Shank can mean a lot things; basically, it means something stiff and straight, like a shaft, a haft, or a stem.  When it refers to a weapon, it is a slang term for an improvised knife; or for any improvised stabbing or slashing weapon.  It usually refers to something that's been prepared or assembled painstakingly from unlikely materials, as opposed to, say, a shard of glass that happens to be handy after you get tossed into a mirror in a barfight.  Watch your fingers!  Yes, the idea is that the "original shank" was a sharpened shank from a prison-issue shoe or boot; but the meaning is more broad than this.
Contributors seem to think that shiv means "shank" and shank is a specific type of "shiv."  It's important, I guess, for everyone to know what 95% of the people who use these terms mean by them, but it's noteworthy (apparently, but maybe only to me) to...note...that the dictionaries of the world say something else. 
So...odds are that when you hear someone saying shiv, he means "shank"; remember that when you are walking into the public showers, if it's any comfort to you.  And if a character from a Raymond Chandler short-story tells you to bring a shiv with you when you meet him in the alley, don't be surprised if he's dissapointed when you show up with something you fashioned out of a T-square and some duct tape.
:I think there's also different useage in different English-speaking countries. The article is vague about this, I'd be interested to know more. Gymnophoria (talk) 12:12, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Drifting meaning of slangy pop-cultural terms 

message: Regarding the recent removal of the contentious(??) line: ...from the metal shanks of prison-issued boots... as being the origin of the term, I tried to track down a reference. Google Books turned up what seemed like a direct hit but I'm suspicious because of the similarity in wording and the fact that the book was published in 2010 and that text has been in the article since 2007, which leads me to believe that the author of that book, when doing his research took this information from this article, although he did not credit Wikipedia for it so I can't be sure. However Google Books also turned up another interesting result from the Atlantic Reporter in 2008: ...attempted to stab him with a shank constructed from the metal arch support of an inmate-issued shoe. While this certainly verifies that shanks can come from prison-issued boots it doesn't verify that that is the origin of the term. So, should we use the Atlantic Reporter as a source or wait for someone with some more information can come forward? -- œ™ 22:20, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology of "shank" 

message: Hey, this image doesn't show shivs, it shows handcrafted knives in the process of being made, when different materials have been glued together before shaping the handle, more like pieces of art than improvised stabbing implements.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.135.26 (talk) 14:30, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Shivs ARE handcrafted knives, and the handles do look completed, the tape around the blades is a home-made sheath. This image most definitely does show stabbing implements, ie. shivs, and they are as 'finished' as they're going to get. -- œ™ 22:15, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

text: Well to be technical about it, "any sharp or pointed implement used as a knife-like weapon" can be called a shiv. So yes, it does have all-fuck to do with the topic. -- œ™ 10:48, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

text: It looks great to me. But what does R.S.A. abbreviate?  Republic of South Africa? Should this be noted to the reader? -- AstroU (talk) 20:58, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Image 

message: This is all over the news with notable sources, and the word 'SHANK'.
 Headline-1: Knife Found In Aaron Hernandez’s Prison Cell
* http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/12/04/knife-found-in-aaron-hernandezs-prison-cell/
QUOTE: "According to ESPN, guards found a prison-made shank during a shakedown when checking Hernandez’s cell. There is no word yet on any possible punishment. This is not the first incident Hernandez has had since being incarcerated. In 2014 he was indicted in an alleged jail assault after getting in an altercation with another inmate. The former NFL-er is scheduled to go to another trial for a 2012 double murder case in Boston in January." -- AstroU (talk) 21:03, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  New NEWS today, for future editing 

message: The article and the dictionary in the reference say that the word might come from Chivomengro but this is incorrect as the ending +engro means a person who has an interest or trade. An example of this is the surname Petulengro with petul meaning horseshoe and +engro added meaning a farrier someone who makes and attaches horseshoes. The word for knife is probably Chivom and the +engro is added in error. RichardBond (talk) 02:46, 6 September 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Romani origin