A small round candy or sweetmeat, usually made of a fruit or nut center coated with hardened sugar or chocolate.
From French 'dragée,' possibly from Arabic 'farīkah.' The word entered English confectionery vocabulary in the medieval period. The sugar-coating technique originally served to preserve the filling.
Dragees have been around since medieval times—pharmacists originally invented them by coating bitter medicines in sugar to make them palatable, then the candy-making industry adopted the technique for pure sweets.
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