wafer

See also: Wafer

English

Some Nilla wafers.

A rolled wafer.

Communion wafers (on the right).

Etymology

From Middle English wafre, from Anglo-Norman wafre, waufre (Old French gaufre), from a Germanic source. Compare Middle Low German wāfel, Middle Dutch wafel (“honeycomb”), West Flemish wafer. See also waffle.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈweɪfə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪfə(ɹ)

Noun

wafer (plural wafers)

1. A light, thin, flat biscuit/cookie.
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 78:

     I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digeſted, the Tincture mounted to his Brain, bearing the Propoſition along with it.

2. (Christianity) A thin disk of consecrated unleavened bread used in communion.

   Synonym: host

3. A soft disk originally made of flour, and later of gelatin or a similar substance, used to seal letters, attach papers etc.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973 edition, page 202:

     The house supplied him with a wafer for his present purpose, with which, having sealed his letter, he returned hastily towards the brook side, in order to search for the things which he had there lost.

4. (electronics) A thin disk of silicon or other semiconductor on which an electronic circuit is produced.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• Anzac wafer
• communion wafer
• Neapolitan wafer
• silicon wafer
• thin as a wafer
• vanilla wafer
• wafer ash
• wafer bread
• wafer iron
• wafer prober
• wafer trapdoor spider
• wafer-scale integration
• wafer-thin
• waferboard
• waferish
• waferless
• waferlike
• waferscale
• wafery

Translations

biscuit

• Bulgarian: вафла (bg) f (vafla)
• Catalan: neula (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 威化餅／威化饼 (wai¹ faa³ beng²)

  Mandarin: 威化餅／威化饼 (zh) (wēihuàbǐng)

• Czech: oplatka (cs) f
• Danish: vaffel c, (flat cake), vafferør n, (rolled cake)
• Dutch: wafel (nl) f
• Egyptian: (pꜣq)
• Esperanto: oblato
• Estonian: vahvel
• Finnish: vohveli (fi), vohvelikeksi
• French: gaufrette (fr) f
• German: Oblate (de) f, Waffel (de) f
• Greek: γκοφρέτα (el) f (gkofréta)
• Hungarian: ostya (hu), nápolyi (hu)
• Italian: wafer (it) m, (ice-cream) cialda (it) f, ostia (it) f
• Japanese: ウエハース (uehāsu)
• Maori: keke angiangi
• Middle English: wafre
• Polish: wafel (pl) m, wafelek (pl) m, andrut (pl) m, andrucik (pl) m
• Portuguese: wafer (pt) m
• Romanian: napolitană (ro) f
• Russian: ва́фля (ru) f (váflja)
• Spanish: oblea (es) f, barquillo (es) m (usually rolled), canutillo m (cylindrical), barquilla f (usually rolled)
• Swedish: rån (sv) n
• Thai: เวเฟอร์ (wee-fəə)
• Turkish: gofret (tr)

thin disk of consecrated unleavened bread — see communion wafer

lump of sealing substance

• French: pain à cacheter (fr) m
• Portuguese: obreia f
• Russian: печа́ть (ru) f (pečátʹ)

electronics

• Arabic: رُقَاقَة f (ruqāqa)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 晶圓／晶圆 (zh) (jīngyuán)

• Finnish: piikiekko
• French: wafer (fr) m
• German: Wafer (de) m, Halbleiterscheibe f
• Greek: δισκίο πυριτίου n (diskío pyritíou)
• Hungarian: lapka (hu)
• Italian: lamella (it) f, dischetto (it) m
• Polish: wafel (pl) m, podłoże (pl) n
• Portuguese: wafer (pt) m
• Russian: подло́жка (ru) f (podlóžka)
• Spanish: oblea (es) f
• Swedish: kiselplatta c, kiselskiva c
• Vietnamese: đĩa bán dẫn

Verb

wafer (third-person singular simple present wafers, present participle wafering, simple past and past participle wafered)

1. (transitive) To seal or fasten with a wafer.
   • 1775, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, 4 March:

     [M]y Father, who knew he was well, wafered the paragraph upon a sheet of paper, and sent to his Lodgings.

   • 1913, Joseph Conrad, Chance, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, page 81:

     [T]he beginning of de Barral's end became manifest to the public in the shape of a half-sheet of note-paper wafered by the four corners on the closed door […].

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English wafer. Doublet of gaufre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛ.fœʁ/ ~ /we.fœʁ/, /wa.fœʁ/, /wa.fɛʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

wafer m (plural wafers)

1. wafer (electronic component)

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English wafer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈva.fer/
• Rhymes: -afer

Noun

wafer m (invariable)

1. wafer (biscuit and electronic component)

Middle English

Noun

wafer

1. Alternative form of wafre

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English wafer.

Noun

wafer m (plural wafers)

1. wafer (type of biscuit)
2. (electronics) wafer (disk on which an electronic circuit is produced)