| Revision as of 08:36, 9 December 2024 editZxcvbnm (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, Pending changes reviewers61,817 edits There is no secondary source confirming this "first" claim, so I will have to remove itTag: Visual edit← Previous edit | Revision as of 00:54, 9 January 2025 edit undoAlalch E. (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, New page reviewers, Rollbackers30,350 edits this being an article about the term "melee", considering that it covers the meaning, etymology, and the origins of the term, it is fairly completeNext edit → | ||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| {{mil-stub|date=May 2015}} | |||
Revision as of 00:54, 9 January 2025
Hand-to-hand combat For other uses, see Melee (disambiguation).A melee (/ˈmeɪleɪ/ or /ˈmɛleɪ/) is a confused hand-to-hand fight among several people. The English term melee originated circa 1648 from the French word mêlée (French: [mɛle]), derived from the Old French mesler, from which medley and meddle were also derived.
The 1812 tabletop wargame Kriegsspiel, and H.G. Wells' 1913 Little Wars, referred to the hand-combat stage of the game as a melée, or mêlée, respectively. The term was brought over to tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, and in turn to role-playing video games, to describe any close-combat encounter.
See also
References
- "Definition of melee". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- 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
- 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
- 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.