confect

English

Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛkt/

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Verb

confect (third-person singular simple present confects, present participle confecting, simple past and past participle confected)

1. (transitive) To make up, prepare, or compound; to produce by combining ingredients or materials; to concoct.

   The woman confected a home remedy for the traveler's illness.

   The young bride's friends confected a dress from odds and ends of fabric.

   • 1604, William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling, Aurora:

     [My joys] are still confected with some feares.

   • 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:

     Of this alſo were confected the famous everlaſting Lamps and Tapers.

   • 1973 December 22, Jonathan M. Cross, “The Fag In The Fifth Row”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 27, page 5:

     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.

   • 2015, Thomas M. Izbicki, The Eucharist in Medieval Canon Law, page 114:

     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.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To make into a confection; to prepare as a candy, sweetmeat, preserve, or the like.
   • 1613, William Browne, “The Second Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. The First Booke, London: […] Iohn Haviland, published 1625, →OCLC, page 39:

     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.

Related terms

• confection
• confectionary
• confectionery
• confectioner

Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnfɛkt/

Noun

confect (plural confects)

1. (obsolete) A rich, sweet, food item made of flavored sugar and often combined with fruit or nuts; a confection, comfit.
   • 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:

     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!

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Of Cornet Joseph Clarke of the Ironsides”, in Micah Clarke: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co […], →OCLC, page 9:

     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.