fértil

Forms

fértil m or f (masculine and feminine plural fértiles)^[1] Nebrija wrote fertile.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fertilis (“fruitful, productive”), a learned word.^[4][5][1][2] The Latin adjective is formed from ferō (“to bear, carry”), in the sense “to bear fruit”, with the suffix -ilis.^[4][6][1] Its -t- probably comes by analogy from other deverbal adjectives in -ilis built on the stem of the past participle.^[1] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”).^[7] Vox dates the borrowing to the 15th century.^[8]

Corominas lists the adjective among the learned derivatives of the Latin verb, beside feraz (1648), from ferāx, and féretro (1605).^[2][4] The same Latin word is Italian fertile and French fertile.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is Ferrer Sayol's Libro de Palladio (1380–1385), which advises that la tierra sea fertil & habundant “the land should be fertile and abundant”.^[10] This antedates the first record of Corominas, Alfonso de la Torre about 1440.^[2][4] DICCA-XV also reports CORDE hits from 1377–1399.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the earliest texts the word describes land and fields, as in Fernández de Heredia's Gran crónica de España (1385), with its campo fertil.^[10] The noun fertilidad appears at the same time as the adjective, about 1440, and fertilizar in 1454.^[2] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 uses cosa fertile to render Latin ferax, fertilis, fecundus and uber.^[11] A 15th-century poem already applies the word to a woman, calling Leah fertil and fecunda beside Rachel.^[10]

The Academy's 1899 edition defined it for land that yields much and figuratively for a year of good harvests and for the mind.^[12] Today the DLE gives land that produces much, a living being able to reproduce and a year of abundant crops.^[5] Moliner applies it figuratively to anything productive, such as an imagination.^[13]

Timeline

• 1380–1385 – Ferrer Sayol's Libro de Palladio has tierra fertil.^[10]
• 1385 – Fernández de Heredia's Gran crónica de España has campo fertil.^[10]
• c. 1440 – Alfonso de la Torre uses fértil and fertilidad, the first records in Corominas.^[2][4]
• 1454 – first record of fertilizar, in Arévalo.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary writes cosa fertile.^[11]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin fertilis and ferre.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. fertile, productive; said especially of land: Es una llanura muy fértil.^[5][1]
2. Of a living being: able to reproduce.^[5][15]
3. Of a year: rich in crops.^[5]
4. (figurative) Productive of ideas or works: una imaginación fértil.^[13][8]

Word family

• fertilidad
• fertilizar

Related words

• feraz
• féretro
• preferir
• Latin fertilis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 632
3. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fértil
5. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. fértil
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. fértil
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 251
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
11. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. fértil
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 457
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fértil
14. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. fértil
15. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. fértil