The Old English term darodh came into French as dard , which later passed into Spanish as dardo . It is a weapon that is thrown by hand in such a way that its tip hits the target.
Similar to a spear , although smaller in size, the dart has a special design to stay in the air sustainably and with stability. In their tail they usually have feathers or some element that gives them aerodynamics.
Currently, different types of projectiles are known as darts, including those that are launched through blowguns . The most popular are darts that are used recreationally to throw at a shooting target or bullseye.
In this case, the target is formed with concentric circles to which different scores are assigned. The objective is for the thrown dart to reach the center of the bullseye (which gives the highest score).
The game of darts can be played individually or in teams. The basic rules consist of each person throwing three darts in turn at a target with the aim of reaching certain sectors of it and, in this way, increasing their score. There are variants of this game, depending on the country and region, although one characteristic that almost all of them share is that it is not recommended to allow children to handle the darts or to be present at a practice without the supervision of their elders.
Returning to the different types of darts, we can differentiate three large groups: those with steel tips, those made of plastic and those with blowpipes. It is worth mentioning that each person can take a basic design and modify it as they wish if they wish to enhance some of its properties (such as stability or lightness, for example) or give it new ones.
Steel tip darts are used in the aforementioned game, using the traditional or hair dartboard , which in its first versions was made from camel hair, although today the material used is pressed sisal, which is obtained from a plant that grows in semi-arid regions and has several commercial applications. The minimum weight of this type of dart is 19 grams, but it can reach 28.
Plastic darts (also called electronic darts) are lighter than steel tip darts. They are used for electronic targets, to minimize the wear they produce on their structure . Its weight is around 17 grams, although some less common models have an even lower weight. The tip of these darts is, as the name suggests, plastic.
Blowpipe darts are very small (they can measure around 2 centimeters long, approximately five times less than the previous two types) and very light, since they must fit in the joint and then be propelled by blowing from one of the ends . of the same.
An expression with aggressive or sarcastic content is also called a dart. For example: “In the interview, the singer threw several darts at the owner of the record company” , “The player threw a dart at the coach for his strict training methodology” , “The governor's dart at the president surprised political analysts” .
Dart , on the other hand, is a masculine given name shared by several historical figures and personalities. The Argentine Dardo Rocha (1838-1921) was a political, military, lawyer and diplomat leader who founded several cities in his country, such as La Plata , Pehuajó and Necochea . The Uruguayan Dardo Regules (1887-1961), for his part, was a politician who was active in the Civic Union of Uruguay .