E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Wayzgoose.
An entertainment given to journeymen, or provided by the journeymen themselves. It is mainly a printers’ affair, which literary men and commercial staffs may attend by invitation or sufferance. The word wayz means a “bundle of straw,” and wayzgoose a “stubble goose,” properly the crowning dish of the entertainment. The Dutch wassen means “to wax fat.” The Latin anser sigatum. (See BEANFEAST, HARVEST GOOSE.)
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“In the midlands and north of England, every newspaper has its wayzgoose.”—The Pall Mall Gazette, June 26th, 1894.
