mêlée

See also: melee

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French mêlée.

Noun

mêlée (plural mêlées)

1. Alternative spelling of melee.
   • 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 27:

     They fought with fighting-sticks, but the duel developed into a mêlée in which Big Paddy laid out three others who came to the usurper’s assistance.

   • 1988, Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, William Heinemann Ltd, page 218:

     What could the Draycotts possibly be doing here? And where, in such a mêlée, could the Draycotts possibly be?

Translations

melee — see also melée,‎ hand-to-hand

• Spanish: mêlée f

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French meslee, older meslede, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō, derived from Latin misceō. By surface analysis, mêl- +‎ -ée.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ.le/ ~ /me.le/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

mêlée f (plural mêlées)

1. fray, brawl, fight, melee (especially disorganized)

   la mêlée pour monter dans le train ― the squabble to get on the train

2. (rugby) scrum

Descendants

• → Catalan: melé
• → English: melee
• → Italian: mêlée
• → Portuguese: melê
• → Spanish: melé

Participle

mêlée f sg

1. feminine singular of mêlé

Derived terms

• demi de mêlée

Further reading

• “mêlée”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French mêlée.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈle/ [meˈle]
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: mê‧lée

Noun

mêlée f (plural mêlées)

1. alternative form of melé

Usage notes

• According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “mêlée”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA