wafer

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.

noun

1. A light, thin, flat biscuit/cookie.
2. (Christianity) A thin disk of consecrated unleavened bread used in communion.
3. A soft disk originally made of flour, and later of gelatin or a similar substance, used to seal letters, attach papers etc.
   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. 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973 edition, page 202
4. (electronics) A thin disk of silicon or other semiconductor on which an electronic circuit is produced.

verb

1. (transitive) To seal or fasten with a wafer.
   [M]y Father, who knew he was well, wafered the paragraph upon a sheet of paper, and sent to his Lodgings. 1775, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, 4 March
   [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 […]. 1913, Joseph Conrad, Chance, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, page 81