Etymology

fruitless

fruit·less
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Today it means: Bearing no fruit; barren. Full definition →

Middle English fruytles
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromfruytles
  2. English todayfruitless

Inherited from Middle English fruytles; equivalent to fruit + -less. Compare Middle English withouten fruyt (“fruitless”, literally “without fruit”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.