staff

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /stɑːf/, US /stæf/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English staf, inherited from Old English stæf (“stick, staff; letter”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *stabaz,^[3] the source also of Old Saxon and Dutch staf, Old Norse stafr, Old Frisian stef and German Stab.^[2][3][5] It is from Proto-Indo-European *stebh- (“post, stem; to support”),^[2][3] which also gave Lithuanian stiebas “staff, pillar” and Sanskrit stabhnāti “he supports”.^[2][6] Etymonline thinks it is not connected to stiff.^[2] Old English stæf also meant “letter, character”, and stave is a back-formation from the plural staves.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stick carried as an aid in walking: about 725,^[9] before 800,^[3] and a bishop's staff before 1102.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Many extended senses come from the notion of “that which supports”, such as staff of life, “bread”, from the biblical break the staff of bread in Leviticus.^[2] A stick used as a weapon is from about 1000,^[9] a magic wand from 1610,^[9] and a flagpole from the 1610s.^[2] The set of horizontal lines in musical notation is from the 1660s.^[2][7] A group of military officers assisting a commander, not in charge of troops, is from 1702 in Etymonline, apparently from German,^[2] or 1779 in Barnhart, probably from the old sense of a supporting pole.^[3] Any group of employees, as in an office, is first recorded in Carlyle's The French Revolution (1837).^[3] The verb, “to provide with staff”, is from 1859.^[9][2][6]

Timeline

• c. 725 – a walking stick.^[9]
• before 1102 – a bishop's staff.^[3]
• c. 1000 – a weapon.^[9]
• 1610s – a flagpole.^[2]
• 1660s – the musical staff.^[2]
• 1702 – military staff officers.^[2]
• 1837 – a body of employees.^[3]
• 1859 – verb, to provide with staff.^[9][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The people who work for an organization or under a manager.
2. A group of officers who assist a military commander.
3. A stick carried as an aid in walking; a stout stick used as a weapon.
4. A rod carried as a symbol of authority.
5. (music) The five horizontal lines on which notes are written; a stave.

Verb

1. To provide with a staff of workers.
2. To work as staff in.

Word family

• staffless
• cowlstaff
• forestaff
• nonstaff
• pikestaff
• staffman
• tipstaff
• waitstaff

Related words

• stave
• staple
• stiff
• staffage

Usage notes

Hoad notes that the plural staves is now chiefly literary except where stave is the usual singular, and that staffs is the only plural for groups of people.^[7] An unrelated staff, a mixture of plaster and fibre for temporary buildings such as those of exhibitions, is from 1892, perhaps from German Stoff “stuff”.^[9][4]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press