Dictionary

quarterstaff en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈkwɔɹtəɹˌstæf/ (US)

Etymology

From quarter + staff, attested since about 1550. Probably originally referred to a staff cut from the heartwood of a certain size of tree which was cleft into four parts, per the OED.

Meanings

1. A wooden staff with an approximate length between 2 and 2.5 meters, sometimes tipped with iron, used as a weapon in rural England during the Early Modern period.
   • [F]ew country people there are who do not love to see two sturdy fellows thwack and belabour each other with quarter-staff, single-stick, or fists. 1881, Walter Besant, James Rice, “How Kitty First Saw the Doctor”, in The Chaplain of the Fleet […], volume I, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, part I (Within the Rules), page 82:
   • Name my accuſer ſaith he, or I defye thee Kemp at the quart ſtaffe. 1600, William Kempe, Kemps nine daies vvonder:
2. Fighting or exercise with a wooden staff of this sort.
   • He was very adept at quarterstaff.
   • First, several couples stood forth at quarterstaff, and so shrewd were they at the game, and so quickly did they give stroke and parry, that […] 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

Forms

Synonyms

lathi · bo · short staff

Translations (5)

mi tokotoko (wooden staff) · mi huakau (wooden staff) · ja 棒 (wooden staff) · tr kargı (wooden staff) · mi tūmū (wooden staff)