Fencing

In the broadest possible sense, fencing is the art of armed combat involving cutting, stabbing, or bludgeoning weapons directly manipulated by hand, rather than shot or thrown. Example weapons include swords, knives, pikes, bayonets, batons, clubs, and similar. In contemporary common usage, 'fencing' tends to refer specifically to European schools of swordsmanship and to the modern Olympic sport that has evolved out of them.

Etymology: The word 'fence' was originally a shortening of the Middle English 'defens'. The first known use in reference to swordsmanship is in William Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor: 'Alas sir, I cannot fence.'