staff

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.

• enPR: stäf, IPA^(key): /stɑːf/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [stɑːf]
  • (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): [stäːf], [stɐːf]
• enPR: stăf, IPA^(key): /stæf/
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [stæf], [stɛəf], [steəf]
  • (Northern England, Ireland, Scotland) IPA^(key): [staf], [stæf], [stäf]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːf, -æf

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

A musical staff

1. (plural staffs or staves) A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 12:11, column 2:

     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.

   • 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:

     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.

2. (music, plural staffs or staves) A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written; a stave.
3. (plural staff or staffs) The employees of a business.

   The company employed 10 new members of staff this month.

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

   • 1940 July, “Notes and News: A Magnificent Transport Achievement”, in Railway Magazine, page 419:

     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.

   • 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in Guardian:

     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".

   • 2023 November 25, Rebecca Rose, “How old is too old for a profile pic?”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 22:

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

4. (uncountable) A mixture of plaster and fibre used as a temporary exterior wall covering.^W
5. A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office.

   a constable's staff

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 122, column 2:

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

   • a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC:

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

6. A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
7. (archaic) The rung of a ladder.
   • 1739, John Campbell, The Travels and Adventures of Edward Bevan, Esq.:

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

8. A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
   • 1697, Virgil, “To the Most Honourable John, Lord Marquess of Normanby, Earl of Mulgrave, &c. and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page [192]:

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

9. (engineering) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
10. (surgery) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
11. (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.
    • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, chapter 49, page 217:

      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.

12. (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.
    • 1946 July and August, “Wise's Train Staff”, in Railway Magazine, page 214:

      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, […] .

    • 1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway Magazine, page 355:

      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.

    • 1951 November, R. K. Kirkland, “The Wimbledon and West Croydon Line of the Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 726:

      The unusual rolling stock, the fare collection methods, and the exchange of train staffs make it quite clear that here is something out of the ordinary run of suburban electric lines.

• (piece of wood): See Thesaurus:stick
• (music): stave
• (employees): personnel

• → French: staff
• → Italian: staff
• → Japanese: スタッフ (sutaffu)
• → Korean: 스태프 (seutaepeu)
• → Malay: staf
• → Portuguese: stafe, staff, estafe
• → Spanish: staff

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

1. (transitive) To supply (a business, volunteer organization, etc.) with employees or staff members.
   • 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 750:

     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.

• staffer
• staffing

staff

1. Misspelling of staph.

• taffs

Borrowed from English staff.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [əsˈtaf]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [esˈtaf]

staff m (uncountable)

1. staff (employees)

• IPA^(key): /staf/

19th century. Obscure, possibly from German staffieren or Old French estofer (modern French étoffer)

staff m (plural staffs)

1. staff, mixture of plaster and fibre

   Le staff apparaît grâce au Français Mézier qui vers 1850 a l’idée de réaliser une première corniche préfabriquée armée d’une toile de jute. Dès lors l’emploi du staff se développe rapidement jusqu’à atteindre son apogée à la belle époque. (French Wikipedia)

   Staff was invented by a Frenchman named Mézier, who around 1850 had the idea to make the first prefabricated cornice using hessian. From then on the use of staff grew rapidly before reaching its peak during the Belle Époque.

• staffer
• staffeur

20th century. From English staff.

staff m (plural staffs)

1. staff, employees of a business

   Synonyms: équipe, personnel

   les membres du staff ― the members of staff

2. governing body (army, corporation, administration, etc.)
   • 1959, H. Bazin, Fin asiles, page 81:

     Il avait été prévu une centaine d’infirmiers et un staff comprenant le médecin-chef, deux assistants, six internes.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “staff”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English staff.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstaf/
• Rhymes: -af
• Hyphenation: stàff

staff m (invariable)

1. staff (people)

staff

1. Alternative form of staf

Unadapted borrowing from English staff.

staff m (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of stafe

Unadapted borrowing from English staff.

staff n (plural staffuri)

1. staff

Unadapted borrowing from English staff.

• IPA^(key): /esˈtaf/ [esˈt̪af]
• Rhymes: -af

staff m (uncountable)

1. staff (employees)
   • 2015 September 12, “Más que un club”, in El País‎:

     Albiol regatea la caseta de Ciudadanos y llega al área de la de Sociedad Civil Catalana, otra ONG no-nacionalista, sobre la que el periodista Jordi Borràs, por cierto, acaba de sacar articulazo vinculando a su staff con la extrema derecha, ese equipo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

From English staff.

• IPA^(key): /sdaf/, [staf]
• Rhymes: -af

staff f (plural staffiau, not mutable)

1. staff (employees of a business; commanding officers)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “staff”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies