fecund, a.
(ˈfɛkʌnd, ˈfiːkʌnd)
Forms: 5–7 fecond, 5 fecounde, 7 foecund, 6– fecund.
[a. F. fecond, ad. L. fēcundus fruitful. In the 16th c. the spelling was refashioned after Lat.]
1. a. Of animals, the earth, etc.: Capable of producing offspring or vegetable growth abundantly; prolific, fertile.
In recent use distinguished from fertility (see quot. 1904). Cf. fecundity. Otherwise somewhat arch.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 77 Make a dyche, and yf the moolde abounde And wol not in agayne, it is fecounde. Ibid. i. 985 That wol make all fecundare On every side. 1537 tr. Latimer's 2nd Serm. bef. Convocation i. 42 He was so fecund a father, and had gotten so many children. 1671 Grew Anat. Plants i. iv. App. (1682) 33 Thorns, from the outer and less fecund Part. 1676 Phil. Trans. II. 594 Animals fecond enough. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 489 The most Benign and Fecund Begetter of all things. 1721 Bradley Wks. Nature 30 The Nourishment and Growth of the Embrio Seed after its Germe is made fecund. 1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 23 Apr. 769 A difference is drawn between fecundity and fertility. Thus women of Irish birth in Australia are less fecund than women born either in New South Wales or in Scotland, but they are more fertile. In other words fewer Irish women have children, but to those who are fecund more children are born. |
b. transf. and fig.
| c 1400 Test. Love iii. (1560) 294/2 Al your workes be cleped fecond. 1793 J. Williams Authentic Mem. Warren Hastings 54 The most considerable..of Mr. Burke's political apophthegms seem to quit their fecund parent..when they are matured. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps vi. §4. 166 This is..fecund of other fault and misfortune. 1854 Fraser's Mag. XLIX. 19 The printing presses of Paris..so prolific and fecund in all kind of fruit. 1884 Sat. Rev. 14 June 784/2 The most brilliant and fecund era in the history of music. |
2. Producing fertility, fertilizing. Cf. fecundity 5.
| 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies ii. x. 289 We are troubled with Aquatique Signs, as if our Aspect was most Foecund. 1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie II. xv. 28 Which yielded, in return for the fecund gift, a scanty growth of grass. |
Hence ˈfecundness, the state of being fecund.
| 1727 in Bailey vol. II. |