fertilityn.
/fəːˈtɪlᵻti/, /fəˈtɪlᵻti/, U.S. /fərˈtɪlᵻdi/ The quality of being fertile; fecundity, fruitfulness, productiveness.
a. literal of the soil, a region, etc.; also of plants and animals.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > fertile land or place > [noun] > condition of
fatheada1325
fecundityc1420
fertility1490
battleness1598
pinguity1623
exuberance1691
richness1796
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > [noun] > quality or capacity of
feracityc1420
fecundity1447
fertility1490
virility1598
fruitfulness1624
Priapus1637
procreativeness1655
breedingness1674
prolificness1678
prolificalness1699
polytoky1702
breediness1753
prolificacy1756
philoprogenitiveness1842
propagability1853
teemfulness1855
teeming1856
progenitiveness1868
fecundability1926
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > soil qualities > [noun] > soil as source of growth > fertility or richness
fecundityc1420
fertility1490
pregnance?1533
fatness1555
battleness1598
pride1603
lust1605
pregnancy1615
pinguity1623
generousness1695
productivity1865
1490 W. Caxton tr. Eneydos xxv. 92 The troienne folke multyplied..in grete quantite..for the fertylyte of the grounde.
a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 9 Marvelous culture & fortylite.
c1610–15 tr. St. Gregory of Nyssa Life St. Macrina in C. Horstmann Lives Women Saints (1886) 189 The first fruite of our mothers fertilitie.
1818 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto IV xxvi. 16 Thy waste More rich than other climes' fertility.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 95 The fertility of this clover greatly depends on bees visiting and moving parts of the corolla.
b. transferred and figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > abundance > [noun]
speedOE
fulsomenesslOE
wonea1300
fulsomeheada1325
cheapc1325
largitya1382
plenteousnessa1382
plenteoustea1382
plentya1382
abundancec1384
affluencec1390
largenessc1400
uberty?a1412
aboundingc1425
fullness1440
copiousness1447
rifenessc1450
copy1484
abundancy?1526
copiosity1543
plentifulness1555
ampleness1566
umberty?1578
acquire1592
amplitude1605
plentitude1609
plenitude1614
fertility1615
profluence1623
fluency1624
flushness1662
rowtha1689
sonsea1689
affluentness1727
raff1801
richness1814
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > inventive or creative faculty > [noun] > productivity of
pregnancyc1487
pregnance?1533
fertilenessa1586
fertility1615
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 103 Such iarres proceeded from their fertility of Gods, differing in each seuerall iurisdiction.
1667 J. Dryden Let. to Sir R. Howard in Annus Mirabilis 1666 Pref. The quickness of the Imagination is seen in the Invention, the fertility in the Fancy.
1750 S. Johnson Rambler No. 75. ⁋4 I found some..fertility of fancy.
1802 J. Playfair Illustr. Huttonian Theory 495 All the fertility of his invention.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 637 Halifax..in fertility of thought..had no rival.
1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 136 Himilco..was a man..of fertility of resource.
c. plural. Productive powers.
ΚΠ
1626–7 Ld. Falkland Let. in R. Parr Life J. Usher (1686) Coll. cxviii. 379 A general..valluation of the different Fertilities.
1709 J. Swift Let. conc. Sacramental Test 12 The Fertilities of the Soil.
1868 J. E. T. Rogers Man. Polit. Econ. (1876) xii. 164 Ground-rent..is a payment made for a particular site because it has certain conveniences, productive powers, or..fertilities, which another site..would not possess.
d. Distinguished from fecundity (see fecund adj., fecundity n.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > [noun]
i-streonc893
strainc950
akennessOE
spreadingOE
upspringc1000
akenningOE
akennednessOE
strainc1175
streningc1230
begetc1330
begettingc1330
engendrurec1350
generationa1382
gettinga1382
genderingc1384
multiplicationa1387
increase1390
prolificationa1393
procreationc1395
engenderinga1400
gendrure?a1400
engendure?a1425
progeniturec1429
propagation?1440
teemingc1450
breeda1500
geniturea1500
engenderment1507
progeneration1548
fathering1549
engender1556
race1561
multiplying1599
pullulation1641
progermination1648
reproduction1713
face-making1785
baby-making1827
begettal1864
fertility1866
1866 J. M. Duncan Fecundity 3 By fertility or productiveness I mean the amount of births as distinguished from the capability to bear... By fecundity I mean the demonstrated capability to bear children; it implies the conditions necessary for conception in the women of whom its variations are predicated... In short, fertility implies fecundity, and also introduces the idea of number of progeny; while fecundity simply indicates the quality without any superadded notion of quantity.
1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 23 Apr. 769 A difference is drawn between fecundity and fertility. Thus women of Irish birth in Australia are less fecund than women born either in New South Wales or in Scotland, but they are more fertile. In other words fewer Irish women have children, but to those who are fecund more children are born.
1936 Discovery Sept. 297/2 The ratio of fertility (actual production of children) to fecundity (child-bearing capacity).
1938 E. Charles in L. Hogben Political Arith. xi. 73 (heading) The effect of present trends in fertility and mortality upon the future population of Great Britain and upon its age composition.
1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 265/2 Fertility in modern demographic usage relates to the actual frequency of births and carries no overtones of ability to have children. For the latter concept fecundity or reproductive capacity are now used.
Compounds
attributive and in other combinations.
ΚΠ
1913 E. N. Fallaize in Encycl. Relig. & Ethics VI. 523 (heading) Fertility charms.
1932 R. A. Knox Broadcast Minds vi. 141 Presenting..the Resurrection as one among a series of fertility-legends.
1933 E. K. Chambers Eng. Folk-play 223 He [sc. Dionysus] remains primarily a fertility-god, with the bull, and perhaps the goat, and the phallus as his attributes.
1933 R. Tuve Seasons & Months i. 40 Whatever remnants of fertility cult lie behind such English folk customs as..‘Rogation Day’.
1942 Burlington Mag. Apr. 98/2 Being used to ecstatic fertility-rites, the more dogmatic and controlled calendar-rites could not catch their emotions.
1952 H. H. Gerth & D. A. Martindale tr. M. Weber Anc. Judaism xi. 279 The prophets declaimed against the rural orgiasticism of the fertility cults.
1952 P. Hughes Witchcraft x. 128 The crescendo of the fertility dance.
1956 D. H. Willson King James VI & I vii. 104 The witch cult in Scotland was derived in part from ancient heathen practice..in which the ritual consisted largely of fertility rites.
1962 J. Gray Archaeol. & Old Test. World v. 112 The fertility-cult of Canaan may have been quite amoral.
1964 Punch 11 Mar. 394/3 Most large hospitals are now equipped with fertility clinics.
1965 Punch 25 Aug. 270/2 First the pill, now fertility drugs—what's that but a return to stop go?
1968 Daily Tel. 12 Nov. 1/6 Mrs. Pennington..has been taking the fertility drug gonadotrophin, the same drug taken by Mrs. Sheila Thorns who gave birth to sextuplets.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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