Etymology Dictionary

WAFER,  a thin small cake, usually round, a thin leaf of paste.  (F.,—O. Low G.)   M. E. wafre, pl. wafres, Chaucer. C. T. 3379; P. Plowman, B. xiii. 271.   We find Low Lat. gafras glossed by wafurs, in John de Garlande; Wright's Voc. i. 126, l. 14.—O. F. waufre, mod. F. gaufre, a wafer.   The form waufre occurs in a quotation, dated 1433, given by Roquefort in his Supplement, s.v. Audier.   The more usual O. F. form was gaufre, or goffre, in which g is substituted for the orig. w.   In this quotation we have mention of un fer a waufres, an iron on which to bake wafers.   β. The word is of Low G. origin; Hexham gives O. Du. waeffel, 'a wafer;' waeffel-yser, 'a wafer-yron to bake wafers in,' of which fer a waufres is a translation; mod. Du. wafel, a wafer, wafel-ijzer, a wafer-iron.   So also Low G. wafeln, pl. wafers; wafel-isern, a wafer-iron.    Webster's Dict. actually gives waffle and waffle-iron as E. words; they are obviously borrowed from Dutch immediately; no authority for them is offered.   Cf. also G. waffel, a wafer, wafel-eisen, a wafer-iron, honey-comb-cockle or checkered Venus-shell (Flügel); Dan. vaffel, Swed. våffla.   γ. The wafer (often, I believe, flavoured with honey) was named from its resemblance to a piece of honey-comb or cake of wax in a bee-hive; from a Low G. form cognate with G. wabe, a honey-comb, cake of wax, a derivative from the Teut. base WAB, to weave, Fick, iii. 289; the comb constructed by the bees being, as it were, woven together.   The f appears in Icel. vaf, a weft, Swed. väf, a web, A. S. wefan, to weave; see Weave.   This accounts for the spelling with ae (in Hexham) of the O. Du. word; the farm waeffel is a dimin. (with the usual suffix -el, and with a modified vowel) from an older form waffe* or wafe*, cognate with G. wabe.   Der. wafer, verb; wafer-er, a wafer-seller, Chaucer, C. T. 12413; M. E. wafr-estre, a female wafer-seller, P. Plowman, B. v. 641. [†]

ADDENDA

Anglo-F. wafre, Lib. Custumarum, p. 473.