Dictionary.com
definitions

fecund

[fee-kuhnd, -kuh nd, fek-uhnd, -uh nd]
|
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fecund ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

producing or capable of producing offspring, fruit, vegetation, etc., in abundance; prolific; fruitful: fecund parents; fecund farmland.
very productive or creative intellectually: the fecund years of the Italian Renaissance.

RELATED WORDS

breeding, fertile, fruitful, pregnant, prolific, rich, teeming, spawning, fructiferous

Nearby words

  1. fecking,
  2. feckless,
  3. fecklessly,
  4. fecula,
  5. feculent,
  6. fecundate,
  7. fecundation,
  8. fecundatory,
  9. fecundity,
  10. fed

Origin of fecund

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin fēcundus, equivalent to fē- (see fetus) + -cundus adj. suffix; replacing late Middle English fecounde < Anglo-French
Related formsnon·fe·cund, adjectiveun·fe·cund, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fecund

British Dictionary definitions for fecund

fecund

adjective

greatly productive; fertile
intellectually productive; prolific

Word Origin for fecund

C14: from Latin fēcundus; related to Latin fētus offspring
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for fecund

fecund

adj.

early 15c., from Middle French fecond, from Latin fecundus "fruitful, fertile, productive," from *fe-kwondo-, suffixed form of Latin root *fe-, corresponding to PIE *dhe(i)- "to suck, suckle," also "produce, yield" (cf. Sanskrit dhayati "sucks," dhayah "nourishing;" Greek thele "mother's breast, nipple," thelys "female, fruitful;" Old Church Slavonic dojiti "to suckle," dojilica "nurse," deti "child;" Lithuanian dele "leech;" Old Prussian dadan "milk;" Gothic daddjan "to suckle;" Old Swedish dia "suckle;" Old High German tila "female breast;" Old Irish denaim "I suck," dinu "lamb").

Also from the same Latin root come felare "to suck;" femina "woman" (*fe-mna-, literally "she who suckles"); felix "happy, auspicious, fruitful;" fetus "offspring, pregnancy;" fenum "hay" (probably literally "produce"); and probably filia/filius "daughter/son," assimilated from *felios, originally "a suckling."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Medicine definitions for fecund

fecund

[fē′kənd, fĕk′ənd]

adj.

Capable of producing offspring; fertile.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.