wastel Obs. exc. Hist.
(ˈwɒst(ə)l)
Forms: 4–7 wastell, (7 vastell), 5 wastelle, (wastle, wastyl(le, wastil), 9 Sc. wastell, 4– wastel; also, by confusion with wassail, 6, 9 wassell.
[a. OF. wastel, north-eastern var. of guastel, gastel (mod.F. gâteau). In Anglo-L. records the word often occurs latinized as guastellum, wastellum: see examples under simnel and treat n.2 2.]
1. Bread made of the finest flour; a cake or loaf of this bread. (See note s.v. treat n.2 2.)
| [1194 in Palgrave Doc. & Rec. Scot. (1837) I. Illustr. p. xxviii, Habere solebant..singulis diebus..duodecim de dominicis guastellis nostris et totidem de simenellis nostris dominicis et duodecim sextercia vini.] c 1300 Havelok 878 Þe bermen let he alle ligge, And bar þe mete to þe castel, And gat him þere a ferthing wastel. c 1300 [see simnel 1]. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 293 Þow hast no good grounde to gete þe with a wastel. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 52 Storve myed wastel with colde ale þen. 1421 Coventry Leet Bk. 23 We commaunde ȝou..þat euery Baxster..bake & sell iiij wastels for a peny. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 22 Þen take.. Roysonys y-hole, or hard Wastel y-dicyd. c 1470 Golagros & Gaw. 223 Thus refreschit he his folk in grete fusion, With outin wanting in waill, wastell or wyne. 1530 Tindale Lev. xxiv. 5 And thou shalt take fine floure and bake .xii. wastels thereof. c 1530 Assyse of Breade (Wyer) A iij b, A farthynge Wastell. 1557 R. Edgeworth Serm. i. 6 b, Like as a Molle if a man would feede her with wine and wastel, she will none thereof. c 1638 Order Priv. Counc., in Penkethman Artachthos H 3, That no Baker..shall make or bake to bee sold any other..sorts of bread (except Simnell, Wastell, and Horse⁓bread, allowed by the Lawes..of this Realm). |
| fig. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode ii. iii. (1869) 117, I blowe with thilke belyes the herth to thilke, that of his soule wole make a wastel to the maister devel. |
b. attrib. as
wastel bread,
wastel cake.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 147 Of smale houndes hadde she þat she fedde With rosted flessh or Milk and *wastel breed. c 1430 Lydg. Min. P. (Percy Soc.) 184 Thouhe I were fedde with mylke and wastelbrede. 1569 in N. & Q. 9th Ser. X. 27/1 Two acres of land called wassell-land, out of which there hath been paid two bushels of wheat yearly, to be made in wassell-bread and given to the poor. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. vi. ii. §8. 285 The Abbot..had Vastellum, that is, not common bread, but vastell bread, or simnels for his diet. 1820 Scott Monast. xiii, A skin as white as her father's finest bolted flour, out of which was made the Abbot's own wastel-bread. Ibid. xvi, I will send up in secret, not only household stuff, but wine and wassell-bread. 1843 F. E. Paget Warden of Berkingholt 66 Time was, when the wastel-bread, and the mortrel pottage,..were bestowed as a pittance to sixty of the poorest..persons in the neighbourhood. |
| 1820 Scott Monast. xxvi, Mysie made no answer, but began to knead dough for *wastel-cake. 1912 Sir H. Maxwell Early Chron. Scot. v. 194 From the moment he entered England, the King of Scots [K. Wm.] was to be supplied with twelve royal wastel cakes and twelve royal simnel loaves. |
2. Her. = torteau 1.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Coat-arm. b iv b, Tortlettis be calde in armys wastell. 1562 [see torteau]. c 1828 Berry Encycl. Her. I. Gloss. |