Melee
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Look up mêlée in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Melee (/ˈmeɪleɪ/ or /ˈmɛleɪ/, French: mêlée [mɛle]; the French spelling is also quite frequent in English writing), generally refers to disorganized close combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts.[1]
The French term was first used in English in c. 1640 (a re-borrowing of a lost Middle English melle,[citation needed] but the Old French borrowing survives in medley and meddle).[1]
In military aviation, a melee has been described as "[a]n air battle in which several aircraft, both friend and foe, are confusingly intermingled".[2]
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.[3][relevant? ]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b OED 2015.
- ^ Kumar, DeRemer & Marshall 2004, p. 462.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2005, p. 38.
References[edit]
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Look up melee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- 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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