ˈwaferer, n. Obs. exc. Hist.
Also 5 waferare, -ere, 4–7 wafrer, waffrer.
[a. AF. wafrer, f. wafre wafer n. Cf. AL. waferarius.]
A maker or seller of wafers or thin cakes.
The itinerant wafer-sellers of both sexes had the repute of being ready to act as intermediaries in amatory intrigues. Cf. wafer-woman, wafrestre. In royal and other great households there were one or more ‘waferers’, whose duties probably included the making of confectionery in general.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 120 ‘I-wis,’ quaþ a waferer, ‘wust I þis for soþe, Schulde I neuere forþere a fote for no freres prechinge’. 1393 Ibid. C. xvi. 199 Mynstralcie can ich nat muche, bote make men murye, As a waffrer with waffres. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 12 Ȝif þei [the religious] ben made wafreris, ȝeuynge lordes, ladies and riche men a fewe peris, appelis or nottis to haue huge ȝiftis to þe couent, euyl þei coueiten here neȝeboris goodis. c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 151 Syngeres with harpes, Baudes, wafereres. a 1483 Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 72 Offyce of Wafere[r]s, hathe one yoman making wafyrs. c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. 9 Yermongers, py-bakers, and waferers. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 2 Fyrste was he hosteler, and than a wafrer. 1679–88 Moneys Secr. Serv. Chas. II & Jas. II (Camden) 107 To William Clopton, in lieu of all fees claimed by him as waferer to his said Majestie on the day of the coronation 30 0 0. 1861 Our Engl. Home 70 The brilliancy of a mediaeval feast was chiefly due to the ingenuity of the waferers, or confectioners. |
So † ˈwafrestre [-estre, -ster], a female waferer.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 641 ‘Wite god,’ quod a wafrestre [A text waferere], ‘wist I þis for sothe, Shulde I neuere ferthere a fote, for no freres prechynge.’ |