staffage

S1T1A1F4F4A1G2E1

noun

The people and animals represented in a landscape painting.

OriginGerman Staffage →
Scrabble 15
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounstaffage (usually uncountable, plural staffages)

plural staffages

  1. uncountableusuallypaintingThe people and animals represented in a landscape painting.

    Some tourists aggravate their position by hiring a guide. Every city of any historic importance breeds a class of mortals that are born guides; they have come to belong to the "staffage" of picturesque surroundings; and in this respect Prague is happily yet unspoilt.

    1923, Bernard Granville Baker, From a Terrace in Prague

Origin

  1. GermanStaffage
  2. Englishstaffage

Borrowed from German Staffage. By surface analysis, staff + -age.

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

staffage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/staffage

MLA

“staffage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/staffage. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “staffage,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/staffage.

Source: staffage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.