English → Latin
“skirmish” in Latin
levislight, not heavy; easy to digest; quick, swift, fleet, nimble, rapidminuōto make smaller, lessen, diminish, reduce, minimize; to attenuate, appease, suppress, repress, quell; to dismember, tearconcursātiōa disorderly motion, convergence, or meeting, especially of people; a skirmish of lightly armed soldiers; roving or itinprōcursātĭoa chargevēlitātiōskirmishing (especially with words), bickering, wranglingvēlitorto skirmish
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
skirmish s.
proelium leve or levius: proelium parvum or minutum (a slight or trifling engagement): pugna fortuita (a fortuitous engagement, as distinguished from a regularly planned battle): concursatio (an engagement of short duration; e.g., meliorem concursatione quam comminus militem, Curt., 8, 14, 24. ☞ Concursatoria pugna is late): procursatio (an engagement of light troops in advance of the line): levis armaturae prima excursio (Cic., of a skirmish of the light-armed troops; Vid: quotation in skirmish. ImPROP.). To fight in skirmishes, parvulis proeliis cum hoste contendere; minutis proeliis inter se pugnare; hostem levibus proeliis lacessere (also velitari, after manner of the velites) in the skirmishes the Gabinians usually had the best of it, parvis proeliis Gabina res plerumque superior erat.
ImPROP. prolusio - tamquam levis armaturae primae alicujus rei excursio (the preparatory skirmish; opposed to ipsa pugna; e.g., sin mecum in hac prolusione nihil fueris, quem te in ipsa pugna cum acerrimo adversario fore putemus? Div. in Caecil., 14; compare haec tamquam levis armaturae est prima orationis excursio - nunc comminus agamus, De Divin., 2, 10, 26): velitatio (Plaut., Asin., 2, 3, 41). Nothing took place but a few skirmishes, levia tantum proelia fiebant (after Liv., 26, 27).
skirmish v.
velitari, (PROP. and IMPROP.): procursare cum aliquo (PROP.). Vid: also, SKIRMISH, substantive.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for skirmish?
- The usual Latin words for “skirmish” are levis, minuō, concursātiō; also prōcursātĭo, vēlitātiō, vēlitor. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.