Etymology

prolific

pro·li·fic
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Today it means: Fertile; producing offspring or fruit in abundance, applied to plants producing fruit, animals producing young, etc. Full definition →

French prolifique ← Latin prōlificus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromprōlificus
  2. French · borrowed fromprolifique
  3. English todayprolific

First use appears c. 1635. From French prolifique and its etymon Latin prōlificus, from prōlēs (“offspring”) + -ficus (“making”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.