tipstaff
(ˈtɪpstɑːf, -æ-)
Pl. -staffs (-stɑːfs, -æ-), or -staves (-steɪvz).
[Contraction of tipped or tipt staff: see tipped ppl. a.1 3.]
† 1. A staff with a tip or cap of metal, carried as a badge by certain officials: see 2. Obs.
| 1541–2 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 12 §26 Anye of the Kinges..officers, that..shall strike any person..withe anye staffe commonye called a Tipp staffe. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 219 Sergeants and other Officers holding Tipstaves in their hands. 1695 Congreve Love for L. i. iv, Two suspicious Fellows like lawful Pads, that would knock a Man down with Pocket Tipstaves. |
† b. pl. Used for ‘stilts’. Obs. nonce-use.
| 1582 Stanyhurst Craking Cutter in æneis, etc. (Arb.) 143 Linckt was in wedlock a loftye Thrasonical huf snuffe: In gate al on typstau's stalcking, in phisnomye daring. |
2. An official carrying a tipped staff; spec. a. A sheriff's officer, bailiff, constable; b. An officer appointed to wait upon a court in session; a court crier or usher. arch.
| 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 1365/1 The knight Marshall with all hys tippe staues. 1600 Holland Livy xlv. xxix. 1220 When they saw the tipstaves and huishers to keepe the doores and places of entrie. 1687 Magd. Coll. & Jas. II (O.H.S.) 148 Then their Lordships..commissioned Atterbury the Tipstaff to fetch a Smith to force them open. 1710 J. Harris Lex. Techn. II, Tip-staves, are the Warden of the Fleets Officers attending the Queen's Courts with a Painted Staff, for taking into Custody such Persons [etc.]. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. ix, Those ministering Sheriffs and Lord-Lieutenants and Hangmen and Tipstaves. 1882 W. Ballantine Exper. xli. 387 They were tipstaves, prepared to take [him]..into custody. 1888 J. Gow Comp. School Classics 290 Order was maintained by tip-staffs, ῥαβδοῦχοι. |
Hence ˈtipˌstavery (nonce-wd.), a body of tipstaffs.
| 1911 B. Capes Loaves & Fishes 224 Cracking their inevitable chestnuts for the benefit of an obsequious tipstavery. |