Picture this: a churchgoer wearing stilettos finds relief for her aching feet thanks to the misericord on her church seat, only to have Dirk, a fellow-worshipper, look daggers at her. (来源：英语杂志 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

We admit it's a silly scenario, but we wonder if anyone can identify its theme. Nope, it has nothing to do with suffering for beauty or offering up one's pain. Instead, our description includes not one, but four words for knives.

We'll begin with the one featured in the description of the other three: dagger. A dagger is a short knife used for stabbing; the word may date back to either Old Provençal or Old Italian. Dirk, "a long, straight-bladed dagger," was formerly carried especially by Scottish Highlanders and has its etymological roots in Scottish.

Then there's stiletto, which we used to refer to the thin high heels. They take their name from the slender stiletto dagger, whose blade is thick in proportion to its breadth. Stiletto was borrowed from Italian.

Our final word has a rich history. Misericord literally meant "mercy" in Middle French. Its earliest English sense referred to the thin-bladed dagger once used to end the suffering of a person mortally wounded. It also developed two other senses: a small projection on the bottom of a hinged church seat that, when turned up, gives support to a standing worshipper; and, a small hall in medieval monasteries used by monks temporarily dispensed from fast or abstinence.