English
staffless
From staff + -less.
Formed from staff + -less
Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ- ‘to stand still’
…
Proto-Germanic *stabaz ‘staff’
Proto-West Germanic *stab
Old English stæf ‘letter of the alphabet’
Middle English staf ‘a staff used to support one's movement’
English staff
Today it means
adj Without employees; unstaffed.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “staffless”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / staffless