confectio

Forms

cōnfectiō f (genitive cōnfectiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnficiō (“to make, complete”) + -tiō.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Cicero,^[5] who, Lewis and Short note, uses it several times while other authors rarely do.^[3] He writes that history was once nothing but the compiling of annals (annālium cōnfectiō).^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Its senses follow those of the verb.^[2][3] It meant making or preparing (of a book, of accounts, of the memory, of olive oil in Palladius), the completion or end of a war, and the exaction of a tribute.^[2][3][6] It could also mean wearing down: a weakening of health in Cicero's Hortensius, and the breaking down of food by the teeth and by digestion in Cicero and Gellius.^[2][3][6] In Justinian's Code it is the drawing up of a will, and Palladius uses it for a thing prepared.^[3]

In the Church it meant making or producing.^[7] Medieval Latin used it for a medical mixture or drug and for a sweetmeat.^[8] English confection was borrowed in the mid-14th century, through Old French, for anything prepared by mixing, from this medieval sense of a preparation or medicament.^[9] It survives in Italian confezione.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of compiling annals, of ending a war and of chewing food.^[2][3][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of digestion.^[6][5]
• end of 4th/beginning of 5th century AD – Palladius uses it of making oil.^[3][5]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it as confection.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A making, preparation; the compiling (of a book, accounts); composition.^[2][3][6]
2. The conclusion, completion (of a war).^[2][3]
3. An impairing, weakening (of health); the breaking down of food by chewing or digestion.^[2][3][6]
4. Something prepared.^[3]
5. (Medieval Latin) A medical mixture, drug; a sweetmeat, comfit.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com