Wafers

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈweɪ.fɚz/

Definitions

1. A very thin, crisp biscuit often sweetened or flavored ; a slender, flat piece of material such as metal, silicon, or bread used in cooking or manufacturing
2. A light, thin crispy cake or cookie usually eaten as a snack or dessert ; a delicate, flat sheet of various substances used as a component or base in technical or culinary contexts
3. A wafer is a slender, brittle food item commonly enjoyed as a treat ; it can also mean a thin, flat segment of certain materials for use in electronics or food preparation

Etymology: "Wafers" is the plural of "wafer", and the singular carries the older story. Its ancestors meant a honeycomb before they meant a biscuit. Middle English "wafre" came from Anglo-Norman "wafre" and "waufre", forms of Old French "gaufre", and behind those lies a Germanic word related to Middle Low German "wāfel" and Middle Dutch "wafel", both meaning "honeycomb". The shape of the honeycomb, with its regular grid of cells, was the picture the cooks carried over to their thin pressed cakes. The same family gave English "waffle", a close relative that kept the grid pattern even more visibly. The cakes once baked between hinged iron plates, which stamped patterns into the batter, and the plates produced both the crisp sheets and the ridged cells that echo the comb. Over time the word spread from the baked cake to other flat, thin things. The sense of a thin sheet used as a base, seen in technical and culinary contexts today, grew out of the original idea of a thin, pressed, patterned layer.

Synonyms: crackers, biscuits, cookies, thin cakes, snaps