quarterstaff
Sign in to saveAlso known as staff, short staff, quarter-staff
A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European polearm, which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- walking stick
- Image
- Quarterstaff line drawing - Project Gutenberg eText 14315.jpg
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- Commons category
- Quarter-staff
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- History
- Historical practice
- See also
- References
- Works cited
A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European polearm, which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period.
The term is generally accepted to refer to a shaft of hardwood from 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 . The height of the staff should be around the same as the user plus their hand set upright on their head (approximately ).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “quarterstaff” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.