Quarterstaff

Quarterstaff Fighting

Quarterstaves in use, from Old English Sports, Pastimes and Customs, published 1891
Focus	Weaponry
Country of origin	Berkshire, England
Creator	unknown
Olympic sport	No

A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European pole weapon which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period.

The term is generally accepted to refer to a shaft of hardwood from 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) long, sometimes with a metal tip, ferrule, or spike at one or both ends. The term "short staff" compares this to the "long staff" based on the pike with a length in excess of 11 to 12 feet (3.4 to 3.7 m).

The name ‘quarterstaff’ is first attested in the mid-16th century. The ‘quarter’ probably refers to the means of production, the staff being made from hardwood of a tree split or sawn into quarters (as opposed to a staff of lower quality made from a tree branch).

The possibility that the name derives from the way the staff is held, the right hand grasping it one-quarter of the distance from the lower end, is suggested in Encyclopædia Britannica. While this interpretation may have given rise to such positions in 19th-century manuals, it probably arose by popular etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary in support of its explanation of the "quarter" in origin referring to the way the staff was made points to an early attestation of the term, dated to 1590, Plodding through Aldersgate, all armed as I was, with a quarter Ashe staffe on my shoulder.

George Silver, an English fencer who wrote two books (1599, 1605) including lengthy sections on staff fighting does not use the term "quarterstaff", but instead calls it a "short staff" (as opposed to the "long staff"). Joseph Swetnam, writing in 1615, distinguishes between the "quarterstaff" of 7 or 8 feet (2.1 or 2.4 m) in length and the "long staff" of 12 feet (3.7 m).

The oldest surviving English work giving technical information on staff combat dates from the 15th century - it is a brief listing of "strokes of the 2-hand staff", which shares terminology with the preceding "strokes of the 2-hand sword" in the same manuscript.George Silver (1599) explains techniques of short staff combat, and states that the use of other polearms and the two-handed sword are based on the same method. Later authors on the subject included Joseph Swetnam, Zachary Wylde, and Donald McBane. Silver, Swetnam, and Wylde all agreed that the staff was among the best, if not the very best, of all hand weapons.