fertilizer

Etymology

It is formed from English fertilize + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb fertilize is formed from English fertile + -ize,^[2][3][5] perhaps after French fertiliser;^[6][3] the OED compares the French verb (1558), fertilizar (1454) and fertilizzare.^[2] Fertile is from Middle French fertil and directly from Latin fertilis (“bearing in abundance, fruitful”),^[4][2][7] from ferō (“to bear, carry”),^[4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *bher- (“to carry; to bear children”).^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something that makes land fertile: before 1661, in Fuller's History of the Worthies of England (1662).^[2][8] Hendrickson quotes the passage: sainfoin, or "Holy-hay", is "a great Fertilizer of Barren-ground".^[8]

Semantic evolution

The agent noun followed the verb fertilize, recorded from 1610 in the OED,^[2] from 1621 in Merriam-Webster^[6] and in the 1640s in Etymonline.^[4] At first a fertilizer could be a person or any agent that enriched the soil, also figuratively; that use is now rare.^[2] From 1681, in Worlidge's Systema Agriculturæ, the word meant the substance itself, manure, compost or a chemical preparation,^[2] and Etymonline notes it as a polite word for manure from 1846.^[4][9] In 19th-century botany, from 1844 in a letter of Darwin, it also meant an insect or other agent that pollinates a plant;^[2][3] the OED marks this obsolete after 1888,^[2] but Collins still gives an organism that fertilizes an animal or plant.^[10]

Timeline

• 1610 – the verb fertilize, to enrich soil.^[2]
• before 1661 – a person or thing that fertilizes land (Fuller).^[2][6]
• 1681 – manure, compost or a chemical used to fertilize soil (Worlidge).^[2]
• 1844 – an insect or other agent of pollination (Darwin).^[2]
• 1846 – used especially of manures.^[9][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A natural or chemical substance, such as manure or a mixture of nitrates, phosphates and potassium compounds, added to soil or water to make plants grow better: The farmer spread fertilizer on the barley field.^{[10][6][11][2]}
2. A person or thing that fertilizes or enriches, also figuratively.^[6][2]
3. An organism, such as an insect, that fertilizes an animal or plant; a pollinator.^[10][3]

Related words

• fertilize
• fertile
• fertility
• fertilization

Usage notes

The British spelling fertiliser is also used.^[10][6][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin