fecund

WOTD – 30 July 2009    

English

Alternative forms

• fœcund (hypercorrect, obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin fecundus (“fertile”), which is related to fētus and fēmina (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /ˈfiː.kənd/, /ˈfɛ.kənd/
• Rhymes: -ʌnd

Adjective

fecund (comparative more fecund, superlative most fecund)

1. (formal) Highly fertile; able to produce offspring.
   • 2001, Massimo Livi Bacci, A Concise History of World Population‎, page 9

     The number of children per woman depends, as has been said, on biological and social factors which determine: (1) the frequency of births during a woman's fecund period, and (2) the portion of the fecund period--between puberty and menopause--effectively utilized for reproduction.

2. (figuratively) Leading to new ideas or innovation.
   • 1906, Charles Sanders Pierce, "The Basis of Pragmatism in the Normative Sciences", in The Essential Pierce: Selected Philosophical Writings‎, volume II, page 373

     This idea of Aristotle's has proved marvellously fecund; and in truth it is the only idea covering quite the whole area of cenoscopy that has shown any marked uberosity.

Synonyms

• (highly fertile): fertile
• (leading to new ideas or innovation): fertile, productive, prolific

Related terms

• fecundity

Translations

highly fertile; able to produce offspring

• Armenian: պտղաբեր (hy) (ptġaber), պտղավետ (hy) (ptġavet)
• Bulgarian: плодовит (bg) (plodovit)
• Hungarian: termékeny (hu)
• Irish: bisiúil (ga)

• Latin: fēcundus (la)
• Russian: плодовитый (ru) (plodovítyj) m
• Turkish: doğurgan (tr)

leading to new ideas or innovation

• Armenian: արգասավոր (hy) (argasavor), բեղմնավոր (hy) (beġmnavor)
• Bulgarian: плодотворен (bg) (plodotvoren)

• Hungarian: termékeny (hu)
• Turkish: üretken (tr)