fecunditas

Forms

fēcunditās f (genitive fēcunditātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fēcundus (“fertile”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs fēcundus as Proto-Italic *fēk-odno-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-k-, and treats it with fēmina; the verb usually cited, *dʰeh₁(i)- "to suck", may be the same as *dʰeh₁- "to put".^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it of a wretched woman's ill-fated fertility.^[2][5] Köbler's first source is Sallust.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is the fertility of female animals and of land: Cicero writes that irrigation gives fertility to the earth.^[2][6] Columella says that nature gave plants, people and animals the same law of fertility.^[6] Figuratively Cicero uses it of the exuberance of a young speaker's talent.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of the output of a breed, pigs producing litters of up to twenty.^[2] Church Latin glosses it fruitfulness.^[7] English fecundity is borrowed from it in the early 15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of fertile women and land.^[2][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it.^[5]
• 1st century AD – Columella of the law of fertility.^[6][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of litters.^[2][5]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as fecundity.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fertility, fecundity, fruitfulness, of animals and land; figuratively, of the mind.^[2][6][7][1]
2. Output, production.^[2]

Related words

• fēcundus
• English fecundity

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com