apifacture

English

Etymology

From apis (“bee”) and factus past participle of faciō (“I do, make”).

Noun

apifacture (uncountable)

1. (rare) The production of honey by bees.
   • 1629, Gerard de Malynes, Consuetudo, Vel Lex Mercatoria, Or The Antient Law-Merchant:

     Next let vs somewhat digresse from Manufacture, to Apifacture, (and with Salemon the wife, send the sluggard to imitate the painefull and laborious Bees) for the increase of Hony and Wzxe in England, Scotland and Ireland, and others of his Maiesties dominions, and let mans helpe succour this Apifacture, if it may be so called, as followeth.

   • 1858, Domestic Annals of Scotland:

     That this might be duly effected, the king granted to Geddie twenty acres of marsh-land in the east end of the park of Falkland, 'to be enclosed, trenched, and planted with such herbs, trees, &c., as is most suitable and convenient for the maintenance and food of an apifacture ; and ordered a convenient house to be built therein for that purpose, and did ordain the treasurer and receivers of his majesty's revenues to pay John Geddie the sum of ₤200 sterling for building and accomplishing the said apifacture.'

   • 1994 July, DJ Bryden, “John Gedde's bee-house and the Royal Society”, in Notes and Records of the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, volume 48, number 2:

     Certainly Sibbald's account of Falkland makes no mention of Gedde's apifacture in the Royal Park, nor is there any physical sign of it in Slezer's view of the Palace and surrounding countryside drawn in the early 1690s