From a recent-ish legal judgment in Oz:
<<It will be noted that we have called the respondent a "confectionery" wholesaler and the product "confectionary". According to the third edition of the Macquarie Dictionary, "confectionary" is "a confection or sweet", while "confectionery" means "confections or sweets collectively". The Oxford English Dictionary defines "confectionary" as "a confectionary preparation, a sweetmeat" and "confectionery" as "things made or sold by a confectioner; a collective name for sweetmeats and confections". Thus a single confection is "confectionary" and a variety of different sweets "confectionery". These definitions do not necessarily determine the choice of word in the present case, which involves many sweets, though all of the same type. However the examples of usage given in the Oxford English Dictionary throw some light on the matter. Thus in 1844 one sees - "ever and anon she insisted upon his taking some particular confectionary, because it was a favourite of hers". And in 1791 one finds - "he pressed her to partake of a variety of confectioneries". The contrast provided by these examples suggests that "confectionary" should be used when describing many sweets, all of which are the same. Hence the spelling we have adopted of "confectionery" and "confectionary".>>

Comments?

What on earth was the judgement dealing with that made such a detailed examination/explanation of these words essential? Or were they being paid by the hour?

dxb

paid by the hour

Or by the word. The OED, however, is relatively clear and is correctly quoted. There are other definitions for each word..

the food inspector from monty pythons skit about the candies finally made it to court.. you remember "crunchy frog" chocolates, and all the other wonderful selections, don't you?
Crunchy frog with small tree frogs, delicately washed in pure spring water before being wrapped in chocolate? (they weren't cooked or boned, in fact it was the tiny little frog bones that made them crunchy!)

Albatross! Albatross! Get yours here! Albatross!

"crunchy frog" chocolates, and all the other wonderful selections

Voila:
http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode06.htm#5

Although the best rendition was as an ad in one of the Monty Python books - the Papperbok, I think (as opposed to the Big Red Book, which was, of course, blue).

Anyone here have a copy of either of those books?

helen, I think you ought to delete this before hyla reads it!

Anyone here have a copy of either of those books?

Yep, both