fetiferous

English

Etymology

From Latin fētifer (“causing fruitfulness”) + -ous, from fētus (“pregnant, fruitful”) +‎ -fer (“bearing, carrying, bringing”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪfəɹəs

Adjective

fetiferous (comparative more fetiferous, superlative most fetiferous)

1. (rare) Producing young; fruitful, productive.
   • 1654, John Webster, Academiarum examen, London, page 27:

     […] all the treasury of those ideal signatures, which […] became existent in the matrix or womb of that generative and faetiferous word, from whence sprung up the wonderful, numerous and various seminal natures […]

   • 1831, George Don, A General History of the Dichlamydeous Plants, London, page 593:

     Fruit somewhat globose, usually fetiferous, with a sweet pulp.

   • 1922, Clifford Bax, (poem title not given), a. 1922, quoted in Arthur Melville Clark, The Realistic Revolt of Modern Poetry, London, page 66:

     Fetiferous of gems which sparkle more / Than fairy lights in eye of queen […]

   • 1930, J. Fullerton Gressitt, transl., Love—The Law Of Life, translation of 愛の科学 by Toyohiko Kagawa, page 31:

     The kangaroo is fetiferous, but has no placenta.

   • 2014, James Maffie, Aztec Philosophy: Understanding A World In Motion, University Press of Colorado, →ISBN, page 452:

     Nepantla is indeed gestational and fetiferous, but not of some postliminal existence, for there is no postliminal existence available.

References

• “fetiferous, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “fetiferous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.