Etymologically
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confectio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kõːˈfɛk.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [koɱˈfɛk.t͡si.o][1]

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