Codex Manesse: a picture of mêlée at a tournament

Melee (from the French mêlée IPA: [mɛle]) generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. The Codex Manesse, Manesse Codex, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift is an Illuminated manuscript in Codex Close combat has two close meanings which sometimes overlap Close quarters battle and Hand to hand combat. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual.

Origin of the term

The French term is the feminine past participle of the verb mêler "to mix". Nominalized, it refers to any confused tangle or agitated scramble, in particular unordered combat. The term descends from Old French meslede, from Vulgar Latin misculāta "mixed", from Latin miscēre "to mix"; compare mélange, milieu. Old French was the Romance Dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. This article is about the geological usage for other uses see Melange (disambiguation.

Like many other foreign-derived terms used in common English, the word is typically written in American English with the accents omitted, appearing as just "melee" and pronounced (IPA: /ˈmɛleɪ, ˈmeɪleɪ/.

Historical use

During the Middle Ages, tournaments often contained a mêlée consisting of knights fighting one another on foot or while mounted, either divided into two sides or fighting as a free-for-all. This article is about the tournaments of the Middle Ages For the general article on tournaments see Tournament. Horses in the Middle Ages differed in size build and breed to the modern Horse, and The object was to capture opposing knights so that they could be ransomed, and this could be a very profitable business for such skilled knights as William Marshal. William Marshal 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 &ndash 14 May 1219) also called William the Marshal (Guillaume le Maréchal was an Anglo Norman soldier There was a tournament ground covering several square miles in northern France to which knights came from all over Europe to prove themselves in quite real combat. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. This was, in fact, the original form of tournaments and the most popular between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—jousting being a later development, and one that did not completely displace the mêlée until many more centuries had passed. The original melee was engaged with normal weapons and fraught with as much danger as a normal battle. Rules slowly tempered the danger, but at all times the melee was more dangerous than the joust.

Modern use

The term melee has been extended to refer to other forms of combat such as a naval or armor battle that is fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. A warship is a Ship that is built and primarily intended for Combat. An armoured fighting vehicle ( AFV) is a military Vehicle, protected by armour and armed with Weapons Most AFVs are equipped for driving in rugged The Battle of Trafalgar became a mêlée when the British ships broke the French and Spanish line, precipitating a ship-to-ship battle. The Battle of Trafalgar ( 21 October 1805) was a historic sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the In this instance, the mêlée was planned; Admiral Nelson used the superior fighting qualities of his crews to offset the greater French and Spanish numbers. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson 1st Viscount Nelson 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758– 21 October 1805 was a British

Melee is occasionally used to describe disorganized groups of people and vehicles, such as mobs, mosh pits, and traffic jams. Vehicles, derived from the Latin word vehiculum, are non-living Means of transport. A crowd is a group of people. The crowd may have a common purpose or set of emotions such as at a political rally, at a Sports game, or during Looting Moshing or slamming refers to the activity in which audience members at live music performances aggressively push or slam into each other

It is also used in sport. Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively For example, the Australian Football League has an official (and somewhat controversial) melee rule which is used to fine players involved in on-field brawls, regardless of whether they throw punches or are simply pulling their teammates away from the fight. The Australian Football League (AFL is both the professional Australian national competition in the Sport of Australian Rules Football and its highest

Use in gameplay

"Melee" (IPA: [meɪleɪ]) has been adopted and popularized as a gaming term to encompass all close-quarter fighting. Historically the term " gamer " usually referred to someone who played Role-playing games or wargames. For instance, gamers will refer to "melee attacks" as opposed to "ranged attacks" in the context of first person shooter, real-time tactics, computer role-playing games, and paper RPGs. A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War Real-time tactics ( RTT) is a computer game Genre of Tactical wargames played in Real-time simulating the considerations and A computer role-playing game ( CRPG) is a broad Video game genre originally developed for personal computers and other home computers A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Basically the term is used to describe directly striking an opponent at ranges generally less than a few feet with fists, feet, knives, swords, hammers, maces, the butt of a rifle or any other sharp or blunt instrument with the intention of causing harm.

There is a term deathmatch that, in computer gaming, means (basically) the same as melee meant in historical era - a FFA fight against all other participants.

See also

• Mêlée weapon
• List of mêlée weapons
• Mêlée (band)
• Mêlée Island
• Hastilude
• Hand-to-hand combat
• Close Quarters Battle