Eskrima

Arnis, also known as Kali or Eskrima/Escrima, is the national martial art of the Philippines.[2] The three are roughly interchangeable umbrella terms for the traditional martial arts of the Philippines ("Filipino Martial Arts", or FMA), which emphasize weapon-based fighting with sticks, knives, bladed weapons, and various improvised weapons, as well as "open hand" techniques without weapons. There have been campaigns for arnis to be nominated in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, along with other Philippine martial arts. As of 2018, UNESCO has inscribed nine martial-arts–related intangible heritages

Arnis comes from arnés,[4] Old Spanish for "armor" (harness is an archaic English term for armor, which comes from the same roots as the Spanish term). It is said to derive from the armor costumes used in Moro-moro stage plays where actors fought mock battles using wooden swords.[5] Arnes is also an archaic Spanish term for weapon, like in the following sentence from Ilustración de la Destreza Indiana by Francisco Santos de la Paz in 1712:[6] Eskrima (also spelled Escrima/Eskrima) is a Filipinization of the Spanish word for fencing, esgrima.[7][8] Their cognate in French is escrime and is related to the English term 'skirmish'. The name Kali most is most likely derived from the pre-Hispanic Filipino term for blades and fencing, Kalis (Spanish spelling "Calis"),[9] documented by Ferdinand Magellan's expedition chronicler Antonio Pigafetta during their journey through the Visayas and in old Spanish to Filipino Mother Tongue dictionary and vocabulary books dating from 1612 to the late 1800s, such as in Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala by Fr. Pedro de San Buenaventura.[10] The term calis in various forms was present in these old Spanish documents in Ilocano,[11] Ibanag (calli-t; pronounced as kal-lî),[12] Kapampangan,[13] Tagalog,[14] Bicolano (caris),[15] Waray (caris),[16] Hiligaynon,[17] Cebuano (calix, baladao[18] – "kalis balaraw/dagger" and cales[19]), and Moro-Maguindanao in Mindanao (calis – the kris, weapon).[20] In some of these dictionaries, the term calis refers to a sword or knife kris or keris, while in others it refers to both swords and knives and their usage as well as a form of esgrima stick fighting.[13][14] While Mirafuente posits that the original term was "Kali" and that the letter "S" was added later, the late Grandmaster Remy Presas suggests that the "S" was dropped in modern times and became presently more known as "Kali" in FMA circles. There exist numerous similar terms of reference for martial arts such as kalirongan, kaliradman, and pagkalikali.[21] These may be the origin of the term kali or they may have evolved from it.[22] In their book Cebuano Eskrima: Beyond the Myth however, Dr. Ned Nepangue and Celestino Macachor contend that the term Kali in reference to Filipino martial arts did not exist until the Buenaventura Mirafuente wrote in the preface of the first known published book on Arnis, Mga Karunungan sa Larong Arnis by Placido Yambao, the term Kali as the native mother fighting art of the Philippine islands.[23] Practitioners of the arts are called arnisador (male, plural arnisadores) and arnisadora (female, plural arnisadoras) for those who call theirs arnis, eskrimador (male, plural eskrimadores) or eskrimadora (female, plural eskrimadoras) for those who call their art eskrima, and kalista or mangangali for those who practise kali. It is also known as Estoque (Spanish for rapier), Estocada (Spanish for thrust or stab) and Garrote (Spanish for club). In Luzon it may go by the name of Arnis de Mano. The indigenous martial art that the Spanish encountered in 1610 was not yet called "Eskrima" at that time. During those times, this martial art was known as Paccalicali-t (pronounced as pakkali-kalî) to the Ibanags,[24] Didya (later changed to Kabaroan) to the Ilokanos, Sitbatan or Kalirongan to Pangasinenses, Sinawali ("to weave") to the Kapampangans, Calis or Pananandata ("use of weapons") to the Tagalogs, Pagaradman to the Ilonggos and Kaliradman to the Cebuanos. Kuntaw and Silat are separate martial arts that are also practised in the Philippine Archipelago.

The people of this country are not simple or foolish, nor are they frightened by anything whatever. They can be dealt with only by the arquebuse, or by gifts of gold or silver ... They kill the Spaniards so boldly, that without arquebuses we could do nothing. This was the reason that Magallanes, the discoverer of these islands, was killed; and that Villalobos and Sayavedra, and those who came afterward from Nueva España were maltreated. All those who have been killed since the coming of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi received their death through lack of arquebuses. The Indians have thousands of lances, daggers, shields, and other pieces of armor, with which they fight very well. They have no leaders to whom they look up. The havoc caused by the arquebuse, and their own lack of honor, make them seek refuge in flight, and give obedience to our orders. —?Francisco de Sande, "Relation and Description of the Phelipenas Islands"