Meanings
plural wastels
- countablehistoricaluncountableA kind of fine white bread or cake.
the simnel bread and wastel cakes, which were only used at the tables of the highest nobility
1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLCSynonyms: wastel bread, wastel cake
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA kind of fine white bread or cake.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*wes-“to be”
- Frankish*wastil
- Late Latinwastellum
- Old Frenchwastel
- Middle Englishwastel
- Englishwastel
From Middle English wastel, from Old French wastel, gastel (> French gâteau), from Late Latin wastellum, from Frankish *wastil, perhaps from Proto-Germanic *wistiz (“sustenance, food”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to be”). Cognate with Middle High German wastel (“a kind of bread”). Compare Old High German wist (“food”) and Old English wist (“food”). Doublet of gateau.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Late Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
wastel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wastel
“wastel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wastel. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wastel,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wastel.
Source: wastel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.