confire

Forms

confire^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French confire, inherited from Latin cōnficiō (“to do completely, finish, prepare”), formed from cum (“with”) and faciō (“to do, make”).^[2][3][4] The ⟨i⟩ of the infinitive comes from the past participle confit, from cōnfectus.^[2][5][3]

Littré compares Occitan confir, and notes that Spanish confitar, Portuguese confeitar and Italian confettare come instead from a derived Latin verb cōnfectō.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1176 in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès, meaning to prepare or concoct something, there a potion.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the verb had the broad sense “to prepare”, still found in the early 17th century,^[3][2] with a range wider than today's, including “to season”.^[5] Gradually it narrowed to preparing food, above all fruit.^[2][3] From 1226 it meant treating fruit with a liquid or with sugar to keep it; in the 14th century fruit was candied in honey.^[2][3] Preservation thus came to matter more than preparation.^[3] A figurative confit en “steeped in” appears in the mid-13th century.^[2]

A trace of the old general sense survives in tanning, where skins are steeped in a bath before being dressed;^[3][6] the noun confit named that bath from about 1268.^[3] The culinary noun confit, meat cooked and kept in its own fat, spread from the south-west from 1867.^[3] The derivatives confiture (13th century) and confiseur (1636) also come from this verb.^[5] The past participle passed into Middle English as confit, later English comfit “sugared sweet”, in the early 15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1176 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for preparing a potion in Cligès.^[2]
• 1226 – First used of treating fruit to preserve it.^[2][3]
• c. 1268 – The noun confit names the tanners' steeping bath.^[3]
• Mid-13th century – The figurative confit en appears.^[2]
• 14th century – Confire ou miel “to preserve in honey” in the Antidotaire Nicolas.^[2]
• Early 15th century – English borrows the participle as confit, later comfit.^[8]
• Early 17th century – Last records of the general sense “to prepare”.^[2][3]
• 1636 – First record of confiseur.^[5]
• 1867 – The noun confit “meat preserved in its fat” spreads from the south-west.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To preserve food by steeping it in a substance that soaks into it, such as sugar, syrup, vinegar, alcohol or fat: confire des prunes dans du sirop.^[2][9][10]
2. To cook and keep meat or poultry in its own fat.^[10]
3. (tanning) To steep skins in a fermenting bath before they are chamoised.^[6][3]
4. (obsolete) To prepare, season or bring to ripeness.^[6][3]

Word family

• confiture
• confit
• confiseur
• confiturerie
• déconfire
• confiserie

Related words

• confectionner
• confectionneur
• confection
• Latin cōnficiō
• English comfit

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1031b
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)