affray: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Get Word of the Day on your mobile phone Text WDAY to 44636 Standard messaging rates apply.
Word of the Day for Sunday, July 5, 2009 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 Yesterday's Word - Previous Words - Help
Get Word of the Day on your mobile phone Text WDAY to 44636 Standard messaging rates apply.
Dictionary.com Word of the Day http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/ You are currently subscribed to Dictionary.com Word of the Day as: mayorjfvalley@gmail.com To unsubscribe: http://lists.lexico.com/u?id=6044678G&n=T&l=wordoftheday&o=14039996 To subscribe to Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com ©2009 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Subscriptions to The Word of the Day can be turned on and off via the Web at http://www.dictionary.com/help/faq/wordoftheday/   Tell a friend about The Word of the Day!