Let's talk today about a not too fertile topic - about violence. No, everything will be, of course, peacefully, no terrible scenes or heartbreaking details. Let's talk about pistols. In other words, consider and analyze the noun "skirmish", and it will be amazing.
Origin
The reader can quite rightly ask: “But what does it have to do with pistols, because we are talking about a showdown in words?” Yes, that's right, if we talk about today. But it was not always so. Let's open the etymological dictionary.
In fact, the history of the word tells us, a skirmish is a shootout. And as the source points out, this meaning has been preserved, but now it is very rarely used. It is worth noting that, probably, few people know about him at all.
The validity of the data is confirmed by the verb "to shoot", that is, "to shoot", whose meaning remains the same as it was. True, now they sometimes say this about strikes in team sports, but this is nothing more than a metaphor, because the original meaning refers us anyway toshooting.
Meaning
Of course, even those who have never opened an explanatory dictionary, thanks to language practice, understand the meaning of the word "skirmish" - this is a squabble.
There is a very interesting detail that combines two words that have lost their "militant" character in our time. Note that both of them were in one way or another connected with the actual battle. A skirmish is a shootout, and earlier there was an expression that is now used in heroic literature, stylized in the old days, - “battlefield”, that is, the relationship was sorted out not in words, but with swords, and the victims were quite serious.
After these brief remarks, we can reveal the modern meaning of the object of study:
- Same as gunfight (obsolete).
- Same as squabble (colloquial).
See, the difficulty is that the object of study is defined through other concepts. But we do not lose heart, we will give their meanings in a list:
- Firing at the same time against each other.
- Quarrel accompanied by abuse.
We think it is clear without repetition what sense refers to which concept. It is also worth adding that in team sports, rapid and meeting attacks are called a shootout, which necessarily end with shots on goal.
Synonyms
In the end, something that will expand the reader's vocabulary when he needs to replace the object of study. The Russian language is strong in its synonymy, so this situation does not seem fantastic. Substitutions will beLittle. Here they are:
- dispute;
- quarrel;
- swearing;
- collision;
- discord;
- squabble;
- picking.
Yes, we must remember this: if the skirmish turns into hand-to-hand combat, then it makes a qualitative leap, that is, a fight can no longer be called a skirmish.
