Etymologically
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fecunditas

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [feːˈkʊn.dɪ.taːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [feˈkun.di.tas][1]

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]

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