Melee
Appearance
(Redirected from Meleé)
An editor has nominated this article for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion, which will decide whether or not to retain it. |
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.[1]
The 1812 tabletop wargame Kriegsspiel referred to the hand-combat stage of the game as a melée.[2] H.G. Wells' 1913 Little Wars was the first to specifically outline a mêlée rule.[3] 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.[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "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.
- Kumar, Bharat; DeRemer, Dale; Marshall, Douglas (2004), An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation, McGraw Hill Professional, p. 462, ISBN 978-0-07-178260-9