Quarter-staff

Quarter-staff, once a favourite weapon with the English for hand-to-hand encounters, and still sometimes used in athletic exercises, is a stout pole of heavy wood, about 6½ feet long, often bound with iron at both ends. It is grasped in the middle by one hand, the other holding halfway between the middle and end (hence apparently the name 'quarter-staff'); and the attack is made by giving it a rapid circular motion, which brings the loaded ends on the adversary at unexpected points. See Broadsword and Singlestick, by Allanson-Winn and Phillipps-Wolley (1890).