Etymology

chance-medley

Today it means: The killing of another in self-defence upon a sudden and unpremeditated encounter. Full definition →

Old French chance medlée
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The story

  1. Old French · derived fromchance medlée
  2. English todaychance-medley

From Old French chance medlée, literally "mingled chance", with postpositive adjective (often confused because of the fact that medley is also a noun).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.