Sciamachy is a noun that refers to the act of fighting an imaginary foe. 

Coming from Greek, this word fought its way into the English language in the early 17th century. It gets its prefix from the word skia (SKI uh) meaning ‘shadow’ and the rest from makhia (MOCK ee uh) which means ‘fighting.’ 

Our word of the day may refer to someone taking swings at an imaginary opponent, but it’s most commonly used to describe something called ‘shadow boxing,’ something a boxer does when training alone. Example:

All that sciamachy may have kept me in pretty good shape, but it didn’t prepare me very well for an actual bout. It turns out it’s a lot harder to battle a person than a shadow