wafery

English

Etymology

wafer +‎ -y

Noun

wafery (uncountable)

1. (obsolete, historical) A kitchen or building in which wafers and other pastries are prepared; the department of the royal household responsible for the preparation of wafers.
   • 1474, Ordinances for the Government of Prince Edward, Son of King Edward IV in A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household Made in Divers Reigns, London: Society of Antiquaries, 1790, “Office of Greate Spycerye,” p. 80,^[1]

     One secundary clerke in this office of the greate spycery, sufficiaunt to resceive and trulye to keepe the Kinge’s stuffe of this office; and to wryte the dayly bookes of the delyveraunces thereof, and of all the other three offices, as it shall require; and he to awnswere to everye parcell of them into the counting-house, as for suger to the wafery, or to the sellare or kychyn, with all other manner of spices nedefull to the confectionarye and sawcerye […]

   • 1531, Nicholas Harris Nicolas, editor, The Privy Purse Expences of King Henry the Eighth‎^[2], London: William Pickering, published 1827, page 139:

     Item the xi daye paied to Robert a lee yoman of the wafery for carying of the kinge nette for one hole yere ended xvi daye of Aprill laste […]

   • 1603, Richard Niccols, A Funeral Oration, upon the Death of the Late Deceased Princesse of Famous Memorye, Elizabeth, London: E. White, “Queen Elizabeths Funerall,”^[3]

     Then folowed Groomes, being: […] Kitchin. Lawndrie. Ewerie. Confectionary. Waferie. […]

   • 1886, W. Carew Hazlitt, “Meals”, in Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine‎^[4], London: Elliot Stock, page 244:

     It was not till comparatively recent times that the wafery, a special department of the royal kitchen, where the confectionery and pastry were prepared, was discontinued.

Adjective

wafery (comparative more wafery, superlative most wafery)

1. Like a wafer (especially, thin, brittle, light).
   • 1847, Charles Lanman, chapter 24, in A Summer in the Wilderness; Embracing a Canoe Voyage up the Mississippi and around Lake Superior‎^[5], New York: D. Appleton, page 145:

     It is, however, much more dangerous to descend than to ascend a rapid; for it is then almost impossible to stop a canoe, when under full headway, and if you happen to strike a rock, you will find your wafery canoe no better than a sieve.

   • 1900, Annie French Hector (as “Mrs. Alexander”), The Step-Mother, Philadelphia: Lippincott, Chapter 4, p. 65,^[6]

     […] enter Mrs. Raikes […] leading by the hand a little boy in a sailor suit, cap in hand, a thin, wafery-looking boy, tall for seven years old, but white and wan, with big, dark-grey eyes, restless and shifty, alarmed like a wild thing afraid of the hunters.

   • 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan, Part One, Chapter 2:

     Barbara had understood from her fifth year that it was not actually the same wafery substance, here on the table at Golders Green, that had been baked by the Israelites on the first Passover night, and yet, in a mysterious sense, it was […]

   • 2002 December 8, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, “Confessions of a kitchen tart”, in The Guardian:

     I had one further mission, to investigate the famous Moroccan pastilla—a parcel of wafery pastry filled with an exotic concoction of meat (classically pigeon), almonds, spices, sugar and eggs.

2. Sliced very thinly. (of bread)
   • 1864, Louisa M. Alcott, Boston: Loring, Chapter 5, p. 94,^[7]

     This was none of your stand-up, wafery, bread and butter teas, but a thorough-going, sit-down supper […]

   • 1888, Richard Dowling, chapter 14, in Miracle Gold‎^[8], Toronto: William Bryce, page 125:

     I am greatly afraid they will not give you anything substantial here; nothing but a cup of tea and a biscuit or wafery slice of bread.

   • 1947, Patricia Wentworth, chapter 12, in Spotlight, London: Hodder & Stoughton, published 1949:

     One of the things she didn’t like about being fashionable was the miserable sort of tea people gave you in London—little wafery curls of bread and butter, and the sort of sandwich that wouldn’t keep a butterfly alive.