Sword

A sword is a bladed weapon intended for both cutting and thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration. A sword in the most narrow sense consists of a straight blade with two edges and a hilt, but depending on context, the term is also often used to refer to bladed weapons with a single edge (also referred to as a backsword).

Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the earliest specimens date to ca. 1600 BC. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The spatha, as it developed in the Late Roman army, became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages, developed into the classical arming sword with crossguard. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord.

The use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or (in an early modern or modern context) as fencing. In the Early Modern period, western sword design diverged into roughly two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabers:

Swords, Dublin

Swords (from Irish: Sord Cholmcille) is the county town of Fingal in County Dublin, Ireland. It is variously defined as an expansive satellite town within commuting distance of Dublin proper, as a large suburb of the capital and as an emerging city in its own right. It is about 13 km north of Dublin city centre. The name "Swords" may also be applied to the townland, the civil parish or to the local electoral area. At the 2011 census the total urban population of greater Swords was 42,738 but when local electoral area definitions are taken into account, the population is 68,583. It lies in Dublin's K67 postal code routing area, commonly known as eircode in Ireland.

Fingal County Council's Strategic Vision for Swords is to create a sustainable new city. They have referred to Swords as an "emerging city" and project that the population of Swords will rise towards 100,000 by the year 2035. The town is the seventh largest urban area in the country, and the second largest in County Dublin.

Sword (disambiguation)

A sword is a cutting and/or thrusting weapon.

Sword, Swords, or The Sword may also refer to:

People

Places

Business and technology

Books

Today

Today may refer to:

News media

Radio

Press

Today (BBC Radio 4)

Today (often referred to as "the Today programme" to avoid ambiguity) is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks. It consists of regular news bulletins, serious and often confrontational political interviews, in-depth reports and Thought for the Day. Today has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda. The programme has 7.18 million listeners per week. It was voted the Best Breakfast Show of the Year at the 2010 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

History

Today was launched on the BBC's Home Service on 28 October 1957 as a programme of 'topical talks' to give listeners a morning alternative to light music. It was initially broadcast as two 20-minute editions slotted in around the existing news bulletins and religious and musical items. In 1963 it became part of the BBC's Current Affairs department, and it started to become more news-orientated. The two editions also became longer, and by the end of the 1960s it had become a single two-hour-long programme that enveloped the news bulletins and the religious talk that had become Thought for the Day in 1970. Radio 4 controller Ian McIntyre cut it back to two parts in 1976–78 (creating a gap which was filled by Up to the Hour), but it was swiftly returned to its former position.

Today (Poe song)

"Today" is a song Poe contributed to the soundtrack of the film Great Expectations in 1998. The song was released as a single in order to promote the film and soundtrack.