philoprogenitiveadj.
/ˌfɪlə(ʊ)prə(ʊ)ˈdʒɛnᵻtɪv/, U.S. /ˈˌfɪləproʊˈdʒɛnədɪv/ 1. Of or relating to love or care of offspring; showing love for one's offspring.Formerly, in phrenology, designating the ‘bump’ or ‘organ’ believed to indicate the faculty of philoprogenitiveness (now historical).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > [adjective] > characterized by love of offspring
philoprogenitive1842
1842 Times 10 June 6/4 She who stepped forth cap-à-pié from a philoprogenitive bump of old Jove's head.
1843 W. M. Thackeray in Fraser's Mag. Aug. 203 Woolsey chuck-chucking..and performing those indescribable freaks which gentlemen with philoprogenitive organs will execute in the company of children.
1859 Atlantic Monthly May 651/2 A number of philoprogenitive letters to Lady Clarke..in which, being childless herself, she expends all her bottled-up maternity on her nephews and nieces.
1876 H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. (1879) iii. xi. 767 Among brutes the philoprogenitive instinct is occasionally suppressed by the desire to kill, and even to devour, their young ones.
1894 D. C. Murray Making of Novelist 183 The pellet..hit him..on the philoprogenitive bump, and he swore audibly.
1922 Sci. Monthly Aug. 156 Love of children..was supposed to depend upon a cortex relatively thicker in the philoprogenitive area.
1952 Eng. Hist. Rev. 67 305 The duke appears as an affectionately indulgent father, giving sound advice to his sons and truly philoprogenitive: ‘Had I 100 children I could love them equally.’
1991 F. King Ant Colony (1992) xii. 94 ‘My father has always been very philoprogenitive,’ Ivor continued. ‘Unlike his only son.’
2. Inclined to or favouring the production of offspring; prolific, fecund. Cf. philogenitive adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > [adjective]
bearingOE
genderinga1398
multiplyinga1400
fecundc1420
broodya1522
fruitful1526
breeding1552
procreant1588
procreative1598
increasing1600
broodious1602
prolifical1608
conceptiousa1616
plenteousa1616
conceptive1630
feracious1637
propagatory1647
prolific1650
proliferous1654
propagative1654
progenial1664
teemful1755
progenitive1769
breedy1824
proligerous1836
progenital1837
philoprogenitive1857
eugenesic1864
1857 Harper's Mag. Oct. 675/2 We do not believe that there is any imminent prospect of the United States being depopulated by woman..becoming so philological as to cease to be philoprogenitive.
1865 tr. D. F. Strauss New Life Jesus II. ii. lvii. 41 To assimilate him to the philoprogenitive Gods of the heathen.
1884 Public Opinion 11 July 33/1 Its [sc. the ‘native’ oyster's] place will be taken by the less philoprogenitive but not less delicate bivalve of Baltimore or of Portugal.
1927 Amer. Mercury Feb. 195/1 The unfortunate fellow was one of the many results of the philoprogenitive vigor of a former pastor in that very community.
1967 T. Wilder Eighth Day v. 323 The Debevoises, philoprogenitive and childlike themselves, lived in the happy tumult of their eleven children.
1991 P. Johnson Birth of Modern 721 Married couples were still as philoprogenitive as ever—more so, indeed, since fewer women died in childbirth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1842- to go to a person's head
- to go to a person's heart
- to go to a person's rescue
- to go to a university
- to go to bath
- to go to battersea to be cut for the simples
- to go to bed
- to go to bed with the sun
- to go to bioscope
- to go to bits
- to go to black
- to go to bull
- to go to church
- to go to church with a person
- to go to cock
- to go to college
- to go to cow
- to go to earth
- to go to etc
- to go to etc college
- to go to exile
- to go to fetch
- to go to glade
- to have a foot in both camps
- to have a foot in the dish