- 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.