стычка

Per Dal, from стыка́ть (stykátʹ, “to connect, to join”) +‎ -ка (-ka); presumably the sense development was "joining" → "meeting" → "skirmishing".

• IPA^(key): [ˈstɨt͡ɕkə]

сты́чка • (stýčka) f inan (genitive сты́чки, nominative plural сты́чки, genitive plural сты́чек)

1. skirmish (brief battle between small groups)

• Dal, Vladimir (1880–1882) “стычка”, in Толковый Словарь живаго великорускаго языка [Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language] (in Russian), 2nd edition, Publication of the bookseller-typographer Wolf, M. O.