BATTLE

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 534 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BAR-BEC

BATTLE , a general engagement between the armed forces,

naval

NAVAL

or military, of enemies. The word is derived from the Fr. bataille, and this, like the Ital.

battaglia

BATTAGLIA

, and Span. batalla, comes from the popular Lat. battalia for battualia.

Cassiodorus

CASSIODORUS (not Cassiodorius)

Senator (48o?575) says: Battualia quae vulgo Batalia dicuntur . . exercitationes militum vel gladiatorum significant (see Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v. Batalia). The verb battuere, cognate with "

beat

BEAT (a word common in various forms to the Teutonic languages; it is connected with the similar Romanic words derived from the Late Lat. battere)

," is a rare word, found in Pliny, used of beating in a mortar or of

meat

MEAT

before cooking, Suetonius (Caligula, 54. 32) uses it of fencing, battuebat pugnatoriis armis, i.e. not with blunted weapons or foils. Battalia or batalia was used for the

array

ARRAY (from the O. Fr. areyer, Med. Lat. arredare, to get ready)

of troops for battle, and hence was applied to the

body

BODY

of troops so arranged, or to a division of an army, whence the use of the word " battalion " (q.v.).
A "pitched battle," loosely used as meaning almost a decisive engagement, is strictly, as the words imply, one that is fought on ground previously selected (" pitched " meaning arranged in a fixed order) and in accordance with the intentions of the commanders of both sides; the

French

FRENCH
CHESTER
- CHESTER
- CHESTER, EARLS OF
_1850_.html">FRENCH, DANIEL
CHESTER
- CHESTER
- CHESTER, EARLS OF
(1850– )
FRENCH, NICHOLAS (1604-1678)

equivalent is bataille arrangee, opposed to bataille manceuvree, which is prearranged but may come off on any ground. With " battle," in its usual meaning of a general engagement of hostile forces, are contrasted " skirmish,".' a fight between small bodies ("skirmishing" technically means fighting by troops in extended or irregular order), and " action," a more or less similar engagement between large bodies of troops. (See also TACTICS and

STRATEGY

STRATEGY

.)

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