confectionery
(kənˈfɛkʃənərɪ)
[f. prec. + -y: see -ery. In all the senses often wrongly spelt -ary, by confusion with confectionary a. and n.]
1. a. Things made or sold by a confectioner; a collective name for sweetmeats and confections.
| [1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 72 Ambre, muske, frankencense, gallia muscata, and confection nere (sic.)] |
| 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) p. ii, The receipts for the confectionary are such as I daily sell in my own shop. 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest xi, He pressed her to partake of a variety of confectioneries. Mod. Stalls on which all sorts of cheap confectionery were displayed. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 644 He having previously spotted on the printed pricelist..coffee 2d., confectionery do, and honestly well worth twice the money. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. III. 837/2 The main ingredients in modern confectionery consist of sugar, brown and white, treacle [etc.]. |
b. A course of sweetmeats at dinner.
| 1847 Disraeli Tancred v. ii, After confectionary..the chieftains praised God. |
2. The art and business of a confectioner.
| 1872 Yeats Hist. Comm. 219 Gingerbread making and confectionery are now separate departments of the baker's art. [See confectionary B. 4.] |
3. A confectioner's shop.
| 1803 E. S. Bowne Girl's Life (1888) 156, I never go by a toy shop, or confectionery without longing to have them [sc. children] here. 1887 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Ky.) 21 Jan. 6/4 Mrs. Jett started a confectionery at Lexington and afterward..she established millineries. |
4. a. attrib., as
confectionery shop, etc.
| 1801 M. Edgeworth Angelina x. (1832) 61 Mrs. Bertrand kept a large confectionary and fruit shop. 1825 J. Neal Brother Jon. II. 342 Such..as were to be had of the confectionary shops. |
b. attrib. Of a building or style of architecture: resembling an elaborate piece of confectionery. (
Cf. quot. 1861
s.v. confectionary a. and
quot. 1879
s.v. wedding-cake (
wedding vbl. n.).)
| 1897 Daily News 15 Sept. 8/3 This Muscovite style is at first disappointing... We are apt to be reminded by it of the wedding-cake and master works of confectionery architecture. 1910 T. E. Lawrence Let. 16 Dec. (1938) 92 The Turks, when they get a glorious broad wall-space..will insist on fretting the wall into little confectionery-arcades. |