quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- fertile
- fertile: [15] Etymologically, something that is fertile can ‘bear’ offspring. The word comes via French from Latin fertilis. This was a derivative of *fertus, the original past participle of ferre ‘bear’ (a distant relative of English bear).
=> bear - fertile (adj.)
- mid-15c., "bearing or producing abundantly," from Middle French fertil (15c.) and directly from Latin fertilis "bearing in abundance, fruitful, productive," from ferre "to bear" (see infer). Fertile Crescent (1914) was coined by U.S. archaeologist James H. Breasted (1865-1935) of University of Chicago in "Outlines of European History," Part I.
- fertilisation (n.)
- chiefly British English spelling of fertilization. For spelling, see -ize.
- fertility (n.)
- early 15c., from Middle French fertilité, from Latin fertilitatem (nominative fertilitas) "fruitfulness, fertility," from fertilis "fruitful, productive" (see fertile).
- fertilization (n.)
- 1857, noun of action from fertilize, or else from French fertilisation.
- fertilize (v.)
- 1640s, "make fertile;" see fertile + -ize. Its biological sense of "unite with an egg cell" is first recorded 1859. Related: Fertilized; fertilizing.
- fertilizer (n.)
- 1660s, "something that fertilizes (land)," agent noun from fertilize. As a euphemism for "manure," from 1846.
- infertile (adj.)
- 1590s, from French infertile (late 15c.), from Late Latin infertilis "unfruitful," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + fertilis (see fertile).
- infertility (n.)
- c. 1600, from Late Latin infertilitatem (nominative infertilitas), from infertilis (see infertile).