CULTURE WATCH : Them’s Fightin’ Words!

Consider some fighting words. Let’s jump into the fray and unscramble their origins.

* Melee: When street toughs mix it up in France, it’s called a melee (MAY-lay). It comes from the French word mesler (to mix).

* Fracas: During a fray, people swear a lot; thus, “FRAY-cuss.” Actually, fracas comes out swinging from the Italian fracassare (to make an uproar).

* Brouhaha : Some say it’s an onomatopoeic attempt to imitate the sound of a noisy crowd. Others say it may be a corruption of the Hebrew incantations barukh habba or be adhonay, which may have confused non-Hebrew speakers.

* Rhubarb : Baseball lexicographer Paul Dickson leads us to the rhubarb patch and says, “Take your pick”: 1. Radio actors in the 1930s murmured “rhubarb-rhubarb” to simulate the sound of an unruly crowd; 2. Free-for-alls resembled the tangled stems of stewed rhubarb; 3. Baseball-playing Brooklyn boys toted rhubarb sandwiches to games and threw them at each other during disputes; 4. Losers of Brooklyn barroom fights were forced to swallow bitter rhubarb tonic, or 5. Most early baseball games were played in the “rhubarbs” (the sticks).