knifepoint

記事の引用からどうぞ。


A man who allegedly raped a woman at knifepoint after attacking her has been arrested, police said.

Nickolos Samaroo, 21, of Queens, was allegedly inside an apartment on 101st Avenue in Jamaica around 3 a.m. on Nov. 9 when he punched and kicked a 39-year-old woman until he knocked her out, the NYPD said.
(NY Man Accused of Raping Woman at Knifepoint Arrested: Police. NBC New York. November 28, 2018.)


ナイフを突きつけて脅して女性に暴行を働いた21歳の男を逮捕、というニュース記事です。

拳銃を突きつけて脅す場合に、


at gunpoint


ということは知っていましたが、同様にナイフで脅す場合に"at knifepoint"という表現があるとは知りませんでした。

興味があったので少し調べてみると、同様に、


at swordpoint
at spearpoint
at riflepoint


などの表現も存在することが分かりました。


Historians believe those settlers were descended from fewer than 100 families who fled Mexico in the 1600s after they escaped the Spanish Inquisition. They were Jews who converted to Catholicism at swordpoint.
(Denver Post, 2003)

Guards drove them at spearpoint down the steps into the lower bailey.
(Rod Garcia y Robertson. Strongbow. 1999.)

It was that of a 24-year-old sharecropper, wife and mother, who was kidnapped at riflepoint by seven men, driven deep into the woods and attacked.
(Atlanta Journal Constitution, 2010.)


つまり、凶器となるものの後に-pointを付けることで作ることができる訳で、ここで-pointはほとんど接尾辞と同じ役割を果たしていることになります。