dragée

[ dra-zhey ]

noun

1. a sugarcoated nut or candy.
2. a small, beadlike piece of candy, usually silver-colored and used for decorating cookies, cake, and the like.
3. a sugarcoated medication.

dragée

/ dræˈʒeɪ /

noun

1. a sweet made of a nut, fruit, etc, coated with a hard sugar icing
2. a tiny beadlike sweet used for decorating cakes, etc
3. a medicinal formulation coated with sugar to disguise the taste

Word History and Origins

Origin of dragée¹

First recorded in 1850–55; from French; Old French dragee, dragie, from Medieval Latin drageia, drageya, dragia “sugar-coated lozenge,” from unrecorded Medieval Greek dragéa for Greek tragḗma “dried fruit eaten as dessert, confection”; dredge ²( def )

Word History and Origins

Origin of dragée¹

C19: from French; see dredge ²