_Mazer Wood_ (Vol. iii., pp. 239. 288.).--Your Querist asks, "Has the
word Mazer any signification in itself?" It signifies _Maple_, being a
corruptions of the Welsh word _Masarn_--the maple-tree. Probably,
therefore, the use of the wood of the maple for bowls and drinking-cups
prevailed in this country many centuries before the times of Spenser and
Chaucer, in whose works they are mentioned. In Devonshire the black
cherry-tree, which grows to a large size in that county, is called the
mazer-tree. From this circumstance I conjecture that this wood has been
used there in former times for bowls and drinking-cups as a substitute
for maple. That the original word, _mazer_, should have been retained,
is not to be wondered at. It is known that when the mazer bowl was made
of silver, the old name was retained. The name of the maple-tree, in the
Irish language, is _crann-mhalpais_; therefore the name of the Irish
wooden drinking-cup _maedher_ cannot be derived from it.