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bacteria (n.)[bacteria 词源字典]: 1847, plural of Modern Latin bacterium, from Greek bakterion "small staff," diminutive of baktron "stick, rod," from PIE *bak- "staff used for support" (also source of Latin baculum "rod, walking stick"). So called because the first ones observed were rod-shaped. Introduced as a scientific word 1838 by German naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876).[bacteria etymology, bacteria origin, 英语词源]
baton (n.): 1540s, "a staff used as a weapon," from French bâton "stick, walking stick, staff, club, wand," from Old French baston (12c.) "stick, staff, rod," from Late Latin bastum "stout staff," probably of Gaulish origin or else from Greek *baston "support," from bastazein "to lift up, raise, carry." Meaning "staff carried as a symbol of office" is from 1580s; musical sense of "conductor's wand" is from 1841 (from 1839 as a French word in English). Often anglicized 17c.-18c. as batoon.
-cule: word-forming element used to make diminutives, from French -cule or directly from Latin -culus (masc.), -cula (fem.), -culum (neuter); these appear to be variants of the diminutive suffix -ulus (see -ule) used after -i-, -e-, -u-, and consonant stems [Gildersleeve], or might be a double-diminutive involving "an ancient diminutive suffix *-qo-" [Palmer, "The Latin Language"].

There also was a Latin instrumentive suffix -culo-, -culum in baculum "walking stick," gubernaculum "rudder, helm; management, government," operculum "cover, lid," obstaculum "a hindrance, obstacle," oraculum "divine announcement."
cane (n.): late 14c., from Old French cane "reed, cane, spear" (13c., Modern French canne), from Latin canna "reed, cane," from Greek kanna, perhaps from Assyrian qanu "tube, reed" (compare Hebrew qaneh, Arabic qanah "reed"), from Sumerian gin "reed." But Tucker finds this borrowing "needless" and proposes a native Indo-European formation from a root meaning "to bind, bend." Sense of "walking stick" in English is 1580s.
cane (v.): "to beat with a walking stick," 1660s, from cane (n.). Related: Caned; caning.
staff (n.): Old English stæf (plural stafas), "walking stick, strong pole used for carrying, rod used as a weapon, pastoral staff," probably originally *stæb, from Proto-Germanic *stabaz (cognates: Old Saxon staf, Old Norse stafr, Danish stav, Old Frisian stef, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch staf, Old High German stab, German Stab, Gothic *stafs "element;" Middle Dutch stapel "pillar, foundation"), from PIE root *stebh- "post, stem, to support, place firmly on, fasten" (cognates: Old Lithuanian stabas "idol," Lithuanian stebas "staff, pillar;" Old Church Slavonic stoboru "pillar;" Sanskrit stabhnati "supports;" Greek stephein "to tie around, encircle, wreathe," staphyle "grapevine, bunch of grapes;" Old English stapol "post, pillar").

As "pole from which a flag is flown," 1610s. In musical notation from 1660s. Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" is attested from 1702, apparently from German, from the notion of the "baton" that is a badge of office or authority (a sense attested in English from 1530s); hence staff officer (1702), staff-sergeant (1811). Meaning "group of employees (as at an office or hospital)" is first found 1837. Staff of life "bread" is from the Biblical phrase break the staff of bread meaning "cut off the supply of food" (Lev. xxvi:26), translating Hebrew matteh lekhem.

The Old English word, in plural, was the common one used for "letter of the alphabet, character," hence "writing, literature," and many compounds having to do with writing, such as stæfcræft "grammar," stæfcræftig "lettered," stæflic "literary," stæfleahtor "grammatical error," with leahtor "vice, sin, offense."
walking (adj.): c. 1400, present participle adjective from walk (v.). Walking sickness, one in which the sufferer is able to get about and is not bed-ridden, is from 1846. Walking wounded is recorded from 1917. Walking bass is attested from 1939 in jazz slang. Walking stick is recorded from 1570s; the insect so called from 1760.