infructuosus

Forms

īnfrūctuōsus (feminine īnfrūctuōsa, neuter īnfrūctuōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + frūctuōsus (“fruitful”).^[2][1] The adjective is built on frūctus (“fruit, produce”), from fruor (“to enjoy”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *frūg-je/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bhruHg-ie/o- (“to use”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Columella,^[4] who speaks of a vineyard of a bad kind that bears no fruit.^[2] L&S call it post-Augustan.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Used first of plants and land that yield nothing (Pliny the Elder of trees made barren by a bad site, the jurist Scaevola of an inherited estate a wife sold as unprofitable),^[2] it was soon applied to anything that brings no return: Tacitus writes of empty and fruitless praise and of long, unrewarding military service, and Pliny the Younger of fruitless prayers.^[2][5] The OLD notes a passage of the elder Seneca where it seems to mean “having evil results”.^[2]

Christian writers used it of barren trees and wood in the Vulgate, of works that bear no fruit, and of people who do no good;^[6] Jerome and Augustine formed the adverb īnfrūctuōsē.^[5] Medieval writers used it for unfruitful, unprofitable and vain.^[7]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a vineyard that bears no fruit.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of barren trees.^[2][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of fruitless praise and unrewarding service.^[2][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of barren trees and of unfruitful people.^[6][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of plants, land) unfruitful, barren.^[2][5]
2. Fruitless, unprofitable, useless.^[2][5][6]
3. Having evil results.^[2]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) (of people) Bearing no fruit, doing no good.^[6]

Word family

• infructuositas

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften