Come talk about fun and quirky words in the English Language. Posting is open to all members.
Them's Fightin' Words

What're you lookin' at?
donnybrook
A scene of uproar and disorder; a heated argument. From the name of a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, formerly famous for its annual fair.
melee
From the French, a confused fight or scuffle.
fracas
A noisy disturbance or quarrel. French, from fracasser, from Italian fracassare, make an uproar.
barney
A quarrel, especially a noisy one.
stramash
An uproar; a row. Late 18th century Scottish. Apparently imitative.




I've used melee and fracas before for sure.
So have I. Very suitable words!
I quite like "stramash" too. I like that it's imitative--that someone thought that's what a brawl sounded like. They weren't wrong!
That is indeed pretty descriptive! I can just see fists smashing into faces.
Fracas is one of my favourites.
They were interviewing the creator of Letterkenny on the CBC and he was talking about Ontario vernacular--including "donnybrook." It made me think about all the other great words we have to describe fights.
"Ruction" is another good one.
Letterkenny! (swoon)
Ha! I've only seen scraps of this show so far, but what I've seen is v funny. That rural Ontario monotone--it's dead on.
It's brilliant. I heard there was a Saint Patrick's Day special coming out while we wait for season 3. ❤
Oh, these are great! The only one I had ever heard of before was melee (but I can't remember where or why).
I've always been a fan of the word fisticuffs . Something about it just seems kind of delightful, despite the fact that it refers to violence. I don't know that I've ever heard anyone use it, but I feel like I would immediately want to befriend anyone who did.
Fisticuffs--wonderful. It fits into this list perfectly. I really like this word too, ,and I've had friends who used it, so don't lose hope, it's out there!