# confect
## English
### Etymology 1

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

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kənˈfɛkt/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)

#### Verb

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

##### Derived terms

* unconfected

##### Related terms

* confection
* confectionary
* confectionery
* confectioner

### Etymology 2

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

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkɒnfɛkt/

#### Noun

confect (plural confects)
* (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.

### References

* ↑ “confect, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.