Dictionary

confect en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /kənˈfɛkt/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōnfectus, past participle of cōnficere, from com- (“together”) + facere (“to make”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To make up, prepare, or compound; to produce by combining ingredients or materials; to concoct.
   • The young bride's friends confected a dress from odds and ends of fabric.
   • Ms. Williams, who confected book, music, and lyrics, credits Aesop for inspiring her "musical fable," but the light-weight, pastel little show owes more to Disney than to the ironic perceptions of Aesop. 1973 December 22, Jonathan M. Cross, “The Fag In The Fifth Row”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 27, page 5:
   • The woman confected a home remedy for the traveler's illness.
   • Of this alſo were confected the famous everlaſting Lamps and Tapers. 1677, Tho[mas] Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Africa, and Asia the Great. […], 4th edition, London: […] R. Everingham, for R. Scot, T. Basset, J[ohn] Wright, and R. Chiswell, →OCLC, page 309:
   • The 1227 provincial Council of Trier took a more admonitory approach, warning that a priest sinned mortally if he failed to confect the Eucharist properly, leading the people into idolatry by having them adore mere bread: Likewise the priest who celebrates mass should confect the body of Christ and read the Canon. 2015, Thomas M. Izbicki, The Eucharist in Medieval Canon Law, page 114:
   • [My joys] are still confected with some feares. 1604, William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling, Aurora:
2. (obsolete, transitive) To make into a confection; to prepare as a candy, sweetmeat, preserve, or the like.
   • Not all the Ointments brought from Delos Ile; / Nor from the confines of ſeuen-headed Nile; / Nor that brought whence Phœnicians haue abodes; / Nor Cyprus wilde Vine-flowers, nor that of Rhodes, / Nor Roſes-oile from Naples, Capua, / Saffron confected in Cilicia; / Nor that of Quinces, nor of Marioram, / That euer from the Ile of Coös came. 1613, William Browne, “The Second Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. [The First Booke], London: […] Geo[rge] Norton, […], →OCLC, page 39:

Forms

Deriveds

unconfected

Relateds

confectionery · confection · confectioner · confectionary

confect en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɒnfɛkt/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōnfectum. Doublet of comfit, confetto, confit, and konfyt.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A rich, sweet, food item made of flavored sugar and often combined with fruit or nuts; a confection, comfit.
   • Princes and Counties! ſurely a princely teſtimonie, a goodly Counte, Counte Comfect, a ſweete Gallant ſurely, O that I were a man for his ſake! 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], signature G3, verso:
   • She made salves and eyewaters, powders and confects, cordials and persico, orangeflower water and cherry brandy, each in its due season and all of the best. 1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Of Cornet Joseph Clarke of the Ironsides”, in Micah Clarke: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co […], →OCLC, page 9:
   • Caraway Comfects, once only dipped in Sugar, and half a ſpoonful of them eaten in the morning faſting, and as many after each meal is a moſt admirable Remedy for ſuch as are troubled with Wind. 1652, Nich[olas] Culpeper, “Caraway”, in The English Physitian: Or An Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation. […], London: […] Peter Cole, […], →OCLC, pages 28–29:

Forms