spat > brouhaha

[duke o' york]

Invalid thread.

spat may well be > than brouhaha in your opinion, but they are not synonyms. A brouhaha is a tumult of some kind, and totally lacking in the combative nature of the spat. A spat may lead to a brouhaha, possibly when it comes down to a challenge to duel, but the brouhaha would more correctly be the effect of the spat on others - whether they rushed to watch the duel, or inveighed against it in the media.

[Kitschum]

Listen to this: A mêlée.

[loinburger]

Diacritics and all

[self biased]

ruckus? hootenanny?

[Solomwi]

Donnybrook > brouhaha > altercation > spat > DD's weak-ass made-up word.

Altercation needs to be removed from the conversation entirely, since it's the preferred word in police reports.

[duke o' york]

Listen to this: A mêlée.

A physical ruck. Possibly the result of a spat, and certainly the cause/result of a brouhaha, but neither of the above. Now a set-to could be either a verbal or physical disagreement, but a mêlée is always physical.