The word was first recorded in English by 1230, from French. It appears in the Ancrene Riwle, a medieval guide for women living as recluses, in a line saying someone can never be defeated in any way.
French had already used the word by about 1100, for destroying a person or thing. Behind the French verb lay an older French verb, and behind that, a Latin one.
In Latin, the source verb meant ‘to prepare’. The French verb built on it also meant ‘to accomplish’, and a prefix meaning ‘not’ went in front. The Latin verb traces to a Proto-Indo-European root, *dhe-, meaning ‘to set’ or ‘to put’, which may also lie behind the English verb ‘do’.
CONFECTION and CONFIT are built on the same Latin verb as this word. CONFECTION reached English by 1477, from French, and meant making something by mixing ingredients. CONFIT came by 1975, from French, for food cooked very slowly in fat.
