melee

{{Short description|Hand-to-hand combat}}

{{Other uses}}

{{wiktionary|melee|mêlée}}

A melee ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|eɪ|l|eɪ}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɛ|l|eɪ}}) is a confused hand-to-hand fight among several people. The English term melee originated circa 1648 from the French word {{lang|fr|mêlée}} ({{IPA|fr|mɛle|lang}}), derived from the Old French mesler, from which medley and meddle were also derived.{{cite web |title=Definition of melee |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melee |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302095052/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melee |archive-date=2 March 2021 |access-date=10 June 2017 |publisher=Merriam-Webster}}

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 {{lang|fr|mêlée}}, respectively.{{cite book |title=The American Kriegsspiel |author=W. R. Livermore |publisher=Riverside Press, Cambridge |year=1882 |page=105 |quote="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" |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2013/20130610001am/20130610001am.pdf |access-date=2019-08-14 |archive-date=2020-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604195240/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2013/20130610001am/20130610001am.pdf |url-status=live}}{{cite book |author=H.G. Wells |url=https://archive.org/details/littlewarsgamefo00well |title=Little Wars |publisher=Frank Palmer Publishing |year=1913 |quote="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"}} 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.{{cite book |author=Michael J. Tresca |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8H8bzqj6S4sC&q=melee&pg=PA60 |title=The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games |date=November 10, 2010 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786460090 |access-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327030807/https://books.google.com/books?id=8H8bzqj6S4sC&q=melee&pg=PA60 |archive-date=March 27, 2023 |url-status=live}}