Staff of office - Definition and Overview

A staff of office is a staff and carrying it often denotes social rank or prestige.

Church sidesmen or dodsmen bear sticks or wands of office; bishops may wield their croziers or crooks; monarchs often flaunt sceptres. A gold- or silver-topped cane can express social standing (or dandyism). Military officers carry a residual threat of physical punishment in their swagger sticks, and the conductors of orchestras have in their batons symbols of authority as well as tools of their trade.

Compare corporate bodies' use of maces and note Sigmund Freud's views on phallic symbolism.