Editing Quarterstaff (section)

==Etymology==
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 [[Quarter sawing|quartersawn]] hardwood (as opposed to a staff of lower quality made from conventionally sawn lumber or from a tree branch).<ref name="Etym05">[[OED]]; {{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=quarterstaff|title=quarterstaff |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=October 25, 2010}}</ref> 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' could also be used as a weapon in the form of a staff. 

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]].<ref name="Etym02">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/486410/quarterstaff |title=quarterstaff(weapon) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref> 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 {{convert|7|or|8|ft|m}} in length and the "long staff" of {{convert|11|or|12|ft|m}}.<ref name="Joseph Swetnam 1617">Joseph Swetnam, "The Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence". London: Nicholas Okre, 1617.</ref>