Crossword Genius

Dagger from old non-Arab country (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

obelus

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'dagger' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'old non-arab country' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'non-arab' becomes 'bel' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'country' becomes 'us' (US is an example).
'o'+'bel'+'us'='OBELUS'

'from' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for obelus that I've seen before include "Dagger-shaped mark" , "It indicates corruption!" , "Dagger symbol" , "Dagger, in printing, to indicate a footnote" , "Printer's dagger" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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