Mêlée weapon

A melee weapon, hand weapon or close combat weapon is any handheld weapon used in hand-to-hand combat, i.e. for use within the direct physical reach of the weapon itself, essentially functioning as an additional (and more impactful) extension of the user's limbs. By contrast, a ranged weapon is any other weapon capable of engaging targets at a distance beyond immediate physical contact.

Etymology

The term ''melee'' originates in the 1640s from the French word ', which refers to disorganized hand-to-hand combat, a close-quarters battle, a brawl, or a confused fight; especially involving many combatants.

The 1812 tabletop war game ''Kriegsspiel'' referred to the hand-combat stage of the game as a ''melee''. Later war games would follow this pattern. From there, gamers would eventually begin to call the weapons used in that stage ''melee weapons''.

Categories

Melee weapons can be broadly divided into three categories :

* Pointed weapons, which cover spears, pikes, lances, and military forks. They typically have a sharp point designed to inflict penetrating trauma, even against heavily armoured opponents, and the length of such weapons gives a range advantage. Certain variants may also hook at enemies to disrupt and disarm them, or pull them from atop horses.
* Edged weapons, which cover swords, daggers, axes, and war scythes. These weapons are designed to cause cutting, dismemberment, and exsanguination injuries, and are most effective against minimally armoured opponents. These are used to cut, hack, slash, thrust or stab.
* Blunt weapons, which cover clubs, maces, war hammers, staves, and flails. These weapons are designed to cause blunt trauma, even through armour that would protect against penetration by pointed or edged weapons.

Many weapons fit into multiple categories, or fit in between them; many polearms such as halberds, lucerne hammers, and add edged and blunt methods of attack to a spear base, and various hooked weapons such as billhooks, , falxes, and evade simple classification; while flexible weapons such as whips don't fall into any of these categories.

List of melee weapons

* Bladed weapons
** Knife
** Dagger (see List of daggers)
** Sword (see Types of swords)
** Bayonet
** Scythe
** Kama
** Kukri
** Machete
** Shuriken
* Polearms
** Pike
** Pilum
** Halberd
** Spear
** Guandao
** Bill
** Naginata
** Lance
** Guisarme
** Trident
** Bident
* Blunt weapons
** Club
** Mace
** Police baton
** Stick
** Nunchaku
** Knuckleduster
* Sports equipment (utilized as an improvised or makeshift melee weapon)
** Baseball bat
** Cricket bat
** Golf club
** Pool cue
** Javelin
** Hockey stick
** Boxing gloves
** Tennis racket
** Bowling ball
* Hardware and utility tools utilized as improvised melee weapons (often used for criminal purposes, or depicted in fiction)
** Entrenching tool (frequently used as a melee weapon in the confines of trench warfare during World War I)
** Rebar
** Pipe
** Pitchfork
** Hammer
** Sledgehammer
** Axe
** Pickaxe
** Sickle
** Chainsaw (commonly in fiction)
** Ice pick
** Shovel
** Frying pan
** Motorcycle sprocket (notably popular among criminals in Indonesia)
** Crowbar

See also

* Cold weapon
* Melee (gaming)
* Knife fight
* List of premodern combat weapons
* List of martial arts weapons

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melee Weapon

1980s neologisms