Affray

I learned this word today while playing The Oxford Game with a student of mine. It means a public fight, a noisy quarrel, a brawl. The verb affray doesn't seem to mean to fight, though. It's marked archaic and means to frighten. If you conjugate it in the past, it sounds like afraid, which connects it better with fear.

This is a sentence I found online with the word: Generals Loring and Reynolds and Major Campbell testify to circumstances which, in their judgment, clearly show that the affray was premeditated by Butler and his friends and that their purpose was to take the life of Major Campbell. I see now there's even a legal definition for affray.