different between cosh vs quarterstaff

Translingual

Pronunciation

• English:
  • IPA^(key): /k??/, /k??se?t?/
  • Rhymes: -??

Symbol

cosh

1. (trigonometry) The symbol of the hyperbolic function hyperbolic cosine.

Usage notes

The symbol cosh is prescribed by the ISO 80000-2:2019 standard. The symbol ch is also in use, and is especially favoured in French- and Russian-language texts.

See also

• cos
• sinh
• tanh

English

Etymology 1

Probably from Romani košter (stick)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

cosh (plural coshes)

1. A weapon made of leather-covered metal similar to a blackjack.
2. A blunt instrument such as a bludgeon or truncheon.
3. (Britain, education, slang, dated) The cane.
   • 1959, Iona Opie, Peter Opie, The lore and language of schoolchildren (page 374)

     There is no need here to digress on the advantages or otherwise of using a 'cosh' in schools […]

   • 2019, John Loveday, The Boy from Rod Alley (page 115)

     Often, he walked around the room with the cosh in his hand, taking slashes at legs that happened to stray sideways […]

Derived terms

• liquid cosh
• under the cosh

Verb

cosh (third-person singular simple present coshes, present participle coshing, simple past and past participle coshed)

1. (transitive) To strike with a weapon of this kind.

See also

• bludgeon

Etymology 2

Adjective

cosh (comparative more cosh, superlative most cosh)

1. (Scotland) cosy; snug

Anagrams

• CHOs, COHs, Chos, OHCs, SOHC, Sohc

English

Alternative forms

• quarter-staff
• quarter staff

Etymology

quarter +? staff, attested since about 1550. Probably originally referred to a staff cut from the heartwood of a certain size of tree which was cleft into four parts, per the OED.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?kw??t???stæf/

Noun

quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves)

1. A wooden staff of an approximate length between 2 and 2.5 meters, sometimes tipped with iron, used as a weapon in rural England during the Early Modern period.
   • 1600, William Kempe, Kemps nine daies vvonder:

     Name my accu?er ?aith he, or I defye thee Kemp at the quart ?taffe.

2. Fighting or exercise with the quarterstaff.

   He was very adept at quarterstaff.

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood:

     First, several couples stood forth at quarterstaff, and so shrewd were they at the game, and so quickly did they give stroke and parry, that […]

Usage notes

An attestation from 1590 of a quarter Ashe staffe shows that the "quarter" was an apposition and could still be detached (Richard Harvey, Plaine Perceuall the peace-maker of England , cited after the OED). Joseph Swetnam (1615) uses "quarterstaff" in the same sense in which George Silver (1599) had used "short staff", viz. for the staff between about 2 and 2.5 meters in length, as opposed to the "long staff" of a length exceeding 3 meters.

Contemporary use of the word disappears during the 18th century, and beginning with 19th-century Romanticism the word is mostly limited to antiquarian or historical usage.

Synonyms

• bo (a Japanese quarterstaff)
• short staff

Translations