Melee

Hand-to-hand combat

For other uses, see Melee (disambiguation).

For usage in games, see Melee (game terminology).

Mêlée aboard ships at the Battle of Sluys in 1340 (BNF Fr. 2643, 15th century) Battle of Lützen by Carl Wahlbom depicting a mêlée in which King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed on 6 November 1632

A melee (/ˈmeɪleɪ/ or /ˈmɛleɪ/, French: mêlée, (French: [mɛle])) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts.[1] In military aviation, a mêlée has been defined as "an air battle in which several aircraft, both friend and foe, are confusingly intermingled".[2]

## History of the term

[edit]

The term melee originates in the 1640s from the French word mêlée, which refers to disorganized hand-to-hand combat, a close-quarters battle, a brawl, or a confused fight; especially involving many combatants.[3][4][5]

In the 1579 translation of Plutarch's Lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes, Sir Thomas North uses the term 'pelmel' to refer to a disorganized retreat.[6] The phrase was later used in its current spelling in Shakespeare's Richard III, 1594:

> "March on, ioine brauelie, let vs to it pell mell, / If not to heauen then hand in hand to hell."

The phrase comes from the French expression pêle-mêle, a rhyme based on the old French mesler, meaning to mix or mingle.[6][7]

The French term melee was first used in English in c. 1640 (also derived from the old French mesler,[8] but the Old French stem survives in medley and meddle).[1]

Lord Nelson described his tactics for the Battle of Trafalgar as inducing a "pell mell battle" focused on engagements between individual ships where the superior morale and skill of the Royal Navy would prevail.[9]

The 1812 tabletop war game Kriegsspiel referred to the hand-combat stage of the game as a melee.[10] Later war games would follow this pattern.[11][12][13] From there, gamers would eventually begin to call the weapons used in that stage melee weapons.[14][15]

## Melee weapons

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A melee weapon, also called a hand weapon, close combat weapon or fist-load weapon, is any handheld weapon used in hand-to-hand combat, i.e. for use within the direct physical reach of the weapon itself, essentially functioning as an additional (and more effective) extension of the user's limbs. By contrast, a ranged weapon is any other weapon capable of engaging targets at a distance beyond immediate physical contact.[16]

## Usage in sport

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In Australian Rules Football, the term "melee" is used by the Australian Football League, sports commentators and journalists as a polite term for a brawl or fighting during a football match,[17] where football players physically attack. Melees often start as verbal disagreements between a small number players from the opposing teams, but can quickly escalate into many players from both teams joining in with this physical scuffle.[18]

## See also

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Look up melee or mêlée in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

* Close-quarters combat
* Hand-to-hand combat
* Melee (gaming)

## Notes

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1. ^ a b OED 2015.
2. ^ Kumar, DeRemer & Marshall 2004, p. 462.
3. ^ "the definition of melee". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
4. ^ "Definition of MELEE". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
5. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. 2015. mêlée. "A battle or engagement at close quarters, a skirmish; a confused struggle or scuffle, esp. one involving many people. Also hist.: a tournament involving two groups of combatants."
6. ^ a b "'Pell-mell' - the meaning and origin of this phrase".
7. ^ "Pell-mell". 26 July 2021.
8. ^ "Melee". 29 November 2021.
9. ^ Fremont-Barnes 2005, p. 38.
10. ^ W. R. Livermore (1882). The American Kriegsspiel (PDF). Riverside Press, Cambridge. p. 105\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2019-08-14. "The first point to be considered is the number of combatants on either side and the relative advantages under which they are fighting; the second the losses and duration of the melee"
11. ^ H.G. Wells (1913). Little Wars. Frank Palmer Publishing. "We did at last contrive to do so ; we invented what we call the melee, and our revised rules in the event of a melee will be found set out upon a later page"
12. ^ Trevor Timpson (August 3, 2013). "Little Wars: How HG Wells created hobby war gaming". BBC News. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
13. ^ Luke Plunkett (September 18, 2012). "HG Wells Practically Invented Modern Tabletop Wargaming". Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
14. ^ "Interview with Gary Gygax". Gamebanshee. Archived from the original on 2009-02-03.
15. ^ Michael J. Tresca (November 10, 2010). The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games. McFarland. ISBN 9780786460090. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
16. ^ Michele Byam (2010-11-30). Arms and Armor, Discover the story of weapons and armor-from Stone Age axes to the battledress of samurai warriors. New York: Dorling Kindersley.
17. ^ "Laws of Australian Rules Football, 2019 - page 8" (PDF). Australian Football League. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
18. ^ AFL Melees: Pies, Cats, Port, Dons, Demons and Tigers, retrieved 2022-04-02

## References

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* Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2005), Trafalgar 1805: Nelson's Crowning Victory, Osprey Publishing, p. 38 38, ISBN 978-1-84176-892-2
* Kumar, Bharat; DeRemer, Dale; Marshall, Douglas (2004), An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation, McGraw Hill Professional, p. 462, ISBN 978-0-07-178260-9
* "mêlée n.", Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.), Oxford University Press, March 2015

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