# wafer
## English
### 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: /ˈweɪfə/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪfə(ɹ)

### Noun

wafer (plural wafers)
* 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.
* (Christianity) A thin disk of consecrated unleavened bread used in communion.
    Synonym: host
* A soft disk originally made of flour, and later of gelatin or a similar substance, used to seal letters, attach papers etc.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.
* (electronics) A thin disk of silicon or other semiconductor on which an electronic circuit is produced.

#### Derived terms

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

#### Translations

Bulgarian: вафла (bg) f (vafla)
Catalan: neula (ca) f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 威化餅 / 威化饼 (wai$^1$ faa$^3$ beng$^2$)
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)
Hebrew: וָפֶל m (váfel), וַפְלָה (váfla)
Hungarian: ostya (hu), nápolyi (hu)
Italian: wafer (it) m, (ice-cream) cialda (it) f, ostia (it) f
Japanese: ウエハース (uehāsu)
Macedonian: обланда f (oblanda)
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) :

### Verb

wafer (third-person singular simple present wafers, present participle wafering, simple past and past participle wafered)
* (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: /wɛ.fœʁ/ ~ /we.fœʁ/, /wa.fœʁ/, /wa.fɛʁ/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

wafer m (plural wafers)
* wafer (electronic component)

## Italian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English wafer.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈva.fer/
* Rhymes: -afer

### Noun

wafer m (invariable)
* wafer (biscuit and electronic component)

## Middle English
### Noun

wafer
* Alternative form of wafre

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English wafer.

### Noun

wafer m (plural wafers)
* wafer (type of biscuit)
* (electronics) wafer (disk on which an electronic circuit is produced)