Word definition: staff

Etimology


From Middle English staf, from Old English stæf "letter (of the alphabet)", from Proto-West Germanic *stab, from Proto-Germanic *stabaz. Cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Swedish stav. Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" and similar meanings, attested from 1702, is influenced by or is even from German Stab.

noun


staff (countable and uncountable, plural staffs or staves or staff)

(plural staffs or staves) A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking.

(music, plural staffs or staves) A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written; a stave.

(plural staff or staffs) The employees of a business.

(uncountable) A mixture of plaster and fibre used as a temporary exterior wall covering.W

A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office.

A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.

(archaic) The rung of a ladder.

A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.

(engineering) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.

(surgery) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.

(military) An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution.

(rail transport, archaic) A form of token once used, in combination with a ticket, for safe train movements between two points on a single line.

Examples


And thus ſhall ye eate it [the lamb]: with your loines girded, your ſhooes on your feet, and your ſtaffe in your hand: and ye ſhall eate it in haſte: it is the Lords Paſſeouer.

The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.

The company employed 10 new members of staff this month.

The company has taken on 1600 more highly-paid staff.

No department of the Southern Railway escaped some share of the work involved, and the outdoor traffic and locomotive staffs in particular were engaged literally night and day, snatching a few hours' sleep as opportunity offered, until the task was completed.

Most staff do not have the skills to cope with such challenging patients, who too often receive "impersonal" care and suffer from boredom, the first National Audit of Dementia found. It says hospitals should introduce "dementia champions".

It turns out that, in journalistic terms, and especially at the FT, where many staff see out their entire careers, seven years is nothing.

a constable's staff

Me thought this ſtaffe mine Office-badge in Court / Was broke in twaine:

All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them.

I ascend at one [ladder] of six hundred and thirty-nine staves.

Mr. Cowley had found out, that no kind of Staff is proper for an Heroick Poem; as being all too lirical:

At the head of that division which had Westminster Bridge for its approach to the scene of action, Lord George Gordon took his post; with Gashford at his right hand, and sundry ruffians, of most unpromising appearance, forming a kind of staff about him.

The train-staff and ticket system was used widely at one time, until superseded by electrical token systems, the first of which, the tablet system, appeared in 1878, […] .

The first up train was the morning semi-fast ex Buncrana, which sped through with No. 8 at its head, adroitly exchanging staffs at about 15 m.p.h. […] The next train through Tooban was our opposite number, and we duly received the vital staff.

Related words


synonyms

(piece of wood): See Thesaurus:stick

(music): stave

(employees): personnel

verb


staff (third-person singular simple present staffs, present participle staffing, simple past and past participle staffed)

(transitive) To supply (a business, volunteer organization, etc.) with employees or staff members.

Examples


Interlaken East station is jointly owned with the standard gauge Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway from Bern and Thun and the Swiss Federal Railways metre-gauge Brünig line from Lucerne, but is managed and staffed by the Bernese Oberland group.

noun


staff

Misspelling of staph.

Data provided by Wiktionary