fecund

• fœcund (hypercorrect, obsolete)

From Middle French fécond, from Latin fecundus (“fertile”), which is related to fētus and fēmina (“woman”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛ.kənd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfiː.kənd/
• Rhymes: -ənd

fecund (comparative more fecund, superlative most fecund)

1. (formal) Highly fertile; able to produce offspring.
   • 2001, Massimo Livi Bacci, A Concise History of World Population, page 9:

     The number of children per woman depends, as has been said, on biological and social factors which determine: (1) the frequency of births during a woman's fecund period, and (2) the portion of the fecund period--between puberty and menopause--effectively utilized for reproduction.

   • 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, p. 7]”, in The New York Times‎:

     The druids […] believed that mistletoe could make barren animals fecund, and that it was an antidote to all poisons.

2. (figuratively) Leading to new ideas or innovation.
   • 1906, Charles Sanders Pierce, "The Basis of Pragmatism in the Normative Sciences", in The Essential Pierce: Selected Philosophical Writings, volume II, page 373

     This idea of Aristotle's has proved marvellously fecund; and in truth it is the only idea covering quite the whole area of cenoscopy that has shown any marked uberosity.

• (highly fertile): fertile
• (leading to new ideas or innovation): fertile, productive, prolific

• fecundity