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Thursday October 14, 2004

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affray \uh-FRAY\ , noun:
A tumultuous assault or quarrel; a brawl.

Mounted encounters by armored knights locked in desperate hand-to-hand combat, stabbing and wrestling in tavern brawls, deceits and brutalities in street affrays, balletic homicide on the dueling field--these were the martial arts of Renaissance Europe.
-- Sydney Anglo, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe

An Irish soldier was stabbed with a boar spear by a German mercenary in 1544 during an affray that followed Henry VIII's capture of Boulogne.
-- James Williams, "Hunting, hawking and the early Tudor gentleman", History Today, August 2003

Affray comes from Old French esfrei, from esfreer, "to disquiet, to frighten."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for affray

 

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