The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*stabaz
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*stab
- Old English · inherited fromstæf“letter of the alphabet”
- Middle English · inherited fromstaf
- English todaystaff
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, Danish stav, 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.
Words from the same roots
Old Englishstæf all →
Staveley
Proto-Germanic*stabaz all →
distaff
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.