fecund

English

WOTD – 30 July 2009

Alternative forms

• fœcund (hypercorrect, obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French fécond, from Latin fēcundus (“fertile”), which is related to fētus and fēmina (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛk.ənd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfi.kənd/
• Rhymes: -ɛkənd, -iːkənd

Adjective

fecund (comparative more fecund, superlative most fecund)

1. (formal) Highly fertile; able to produce offspring.

   Synonyms: battle, (archaic) childing

   • 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.

   • 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, p. 7]”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The druids […] believed that mistletoe could make barren animals fecund, and that it was an antidote to all poisons.

2. (figuratively) Leading to new ideas or innovation.

   Synonyms: fertile, productive, prolific

   • 1906, Charles Sanders Peirce, “The Basis of Pragmatism in the Normative Sciences”, in The Essential Peirce: 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.

Related terms

• fecundity

Translations

highly fertile; able to produce offspring

• Armenian: պտղաբեր (hy) (ptġaber), պտղավետ (hy) (ptġavet)
• Bulgarian: плодовит (bg) (plodovit)
• Danish: frugtbar (da)
• French: fécond (fr)
• German: fruchtbar (de)
• Hungarian: termékeny (hu)
• Ido: fekunda (io)
• Irish: bisiúil
• Latin: fēcundus
• Latvian: vaislīgs, auglīgs
• Maori: matahua
• Russian: плодови́тый (ru) (plodovítyj)
• Spanish: fecundo (es)
• Turkish: doğurgan (tr), mahsuldar (tr), verimli (tr), feyyaz (tr), gür (tr), bitek (tr)

leading to new ideas or innovation

• Armenian: արգասավոր (argasavor), բեղմնավոր (hy) (beġmnavor)
• Bulgarian: плодотворен (plodotvoren)
• German: fruchtbar (de), produktiv (de)
• Hungarian: termékeny (hu)
• Swedish: fruktbar (sv)
• Turkish: üretken (tr)

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fēcundus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [fəˈkun]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [fəˈkunt]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [feˈkunt]

Adjective

fecund (feminine fecunda, masculine plural fecunds, feminine plural fecundes)

1. fruitful
2. fertile

   Synonym: fèrtil

Derived terms

• fecundament

Related terms

• fecundar
• fecunditat

Further reading

• “fecund” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “fecund”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “fecund” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “fecund” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French fécond, from Latin fecundus.

Adjective

fecund m or n (feminine singular fecundă, masculine plural fecunzi, feminine and neuter plural fecunde)

1. fruitful

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	fecund		fecundă		fecunzi	fecunde
	definite	fecundul		fecunda		fecunzii	fecundele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	fecund		fecunde		fecunzi	fecunde
	definite	fecundului		fecundei		fecunzilor	fecundelor

Related terms

• fecunda
• fecunditate