scrimmage

Etymology

It is apparently from English an alteration of scrimmish, with the ending replaced by -age,^[2][3][4] although scrimmish is first recorded slightly later.^[2] That form was a variant of skirmish with the i and r transposed,^[5][6][7] and the OED compares the obsolete variants of skirmish ending in -age and the forms of rubbish.^[2] Skirmish goes back to Middle English skyrmissh, an alteration of earlier scarmuch,^[5] from Middle French escarmouche, from Italian scaramuccia,^[5][8][2] which the OED calls of doubtful origin^[2] and Etymonline and Merriam-Webster derive from a Germanic source related to Old High German scirmen (“to protect, defend”).^[8][5] Weekley compares French escrime (“fencing”).^[9] The verb is formed from the noun.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A skirmish, a bout of unplanned fighting between small groups of soldiers, a minor battle: 1488, in a manuscript of Hary's poem on William Wallace, composed about 1478.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to about 1470,^[10] Etymonline to the late 15th century,^[8] and Dictionary.com to 1425–75.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first meaning was the same as that of skirmish.^[5] In the 18th century the word came to mean any noisy altercation:^[5] the OED has an obsolete sense "outcry, commotion" in 1632 and "a hand-to-hand fight, a scuffle" from 1780, in a letter by S. Johnson.^[2][8] As a name for a noisy, confused struggle it suited 19th-century Rugby football,^[5] where the OED records it from 1853, for a tussle of players from both sides around the ball;^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the football sense to 1857.^[8][10] The dialect variant scrummage was the one that stuck in Rugby, later shortened to scrum, while American football, which took the term from Rugby, kept scrimmage;^[5] there it named from 1880 a sequence of play that starts when the ball is put into play,^[2] and later, from 1897, a practice game between two groups of the same team.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster notes that the word has since spread to other American sports.^[5] The verb, "to skirmish", is recorded from about 1536,^[2] but Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it only from 1825, as "to quarrel".^[8][11] It later meant to bustle in a crowd (1833) and to rummage (1887).^[2] The English Dialect Dictionary records a noisy argument in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, a thorough, noisy search in Banffshire, and in East Yorkshire a term of abuse for a dwarf.^[12]

Timeline

• 1488 – a skirmish, a minor battle.^[2]
• c. 1536 – verb, to skirmish; later also to wrangle.^[2]
• 1632 – an outcry, a commotion (obsolete).^[2]
• 1780 – a hand-to-hand fight, a scuffle; a confused struggle.^[2][8][10]
• 1833 – verb, to bustle about in a crowd.^[2]
• 1853 – in Rugby, a tussle of players around the ball.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the football sense to 1857.^[8][10]
• 1872 – verb, in Rugby, to drive the ball forward in a scrum.^[2]
• 1880 – in American and Canadian football, a sequence of play from the moment the ball is put into play.^[2]
• 1887 – verb, to rummage.^[2]
• 1897 – a practice session between two groups from the same team.^[2] Etymonline dates it by 1916.^[8]
• 1910 – a game outside a tournament or league; an exhibition game.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rough, disorderly struggle; a scuffle or tussle: There was a scrimmage at the ticket office when the gates opened.^[13][11][2]
2. (American football) The play that starts when the ball is snapped, with the clash of the opposing linemen at each down.^[13][11][2]
3. A practice game between two groups of the same team, or a game that does not count in a league.^[11][2]
4. (rugby) An older word for a scrum.^[11][2]
5. A skirmish or minor battle between small forces.^[11][2][4]

Verb

1. To take part in a scrimmage.^[13][11]
2. To put the ball into a scrimmage.^[13][11]
3. To play a practice game, or to play against another team in one.^[11][2]
4. To search busily or untidily; to rummage.^[11][2]

Word family

• scrimmager

Related words

• skirmish
• scrummage
• scrum
• scaramouch

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins