quarterstaff

The height of the staff should be around the same as the user plus their hand set upright on their head (approximately 8 inches (20 cm)).

The name "quarterstaff" is first attested in the mid-16th century. The "quarter" possibly refers to the means of production, the staff being made from quartersawn hardwood (as opposed to a staff of lower quality made from conventionally sawn lumber or from a tree branch). English longbows were traditionally made from staves of yew or ash that were split into quarters. If the longbow was not in use, the 'quarter stave' may have also been used as a weapon in the form of a staff. It is also possible 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, as suggested in the 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 11 or 12 feet (3.4 or 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. During the 16th century quarterstaves were favoured as weapons by the London Masters of Defence. Richard Peeke, in 1625, and Zachary Wylde, in 1711, refer to the quarterstaff as a national English weapon. By the 18th century the weapon became popularly associated with gladiatorial prize playing. A modified version of quarterstaff fencing, employing bamboo or ash staves and protective equipment adapted from fencing, boxing, and cricket was revived as a sport in some London fencing schools and at the Aldershot Military Training School during the later 19th century. Works on this style were published by Thomas McCarthy and by Allanson-Winn and Phillips-Wolley. An informal tradition (or sporadic series of revivals) based on the late 19th century style persisted in England throughout the early to mid 20th century, being particularly associated with military and fencing exhibitions and with the Boy Scout movement. The quarterstaff is also one of the main disciplines of stage combat taught by the Society of American Fight Directors, the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat, and the British Academy of Dramatic Combat.