Have you ever used the 10-foot pole?

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It's called a quarterstaff because of the way it is held in combat.
I am going to draw a diagram, - are the pole, and + are hands

------------+-----+-----

is how you hold a quarterstaff, with one hand at the half, and one at the quarter.


if you were to hold it like this
---------+---------+----------

it would be a half staff..


but I digress.

Are you for real?

Wouldn't the first way of holding it make it a "Waking Stick"? It would also only allow you to use one end.

However . . . in the bottem example, you could definitely use both ends (which the PHB lets you do if you fight "Two-handed").

I guess the first way is how you use it when fighting one-handed.