Where does “unfruitful” come from?
Unfruitful derives from English fruit plus the prefix un-, itself from Latin unus meaning "one," traced through Proto-Indo-European óynos and ultimately to the root h₂ent-.
unfruitful (English): Not bearing fruit
Ancestry of “unfruitful”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | fruitful | Favourable to the growth of fruit or useful... |
| 2 | Middle English | fruitefull | — |
| 3 | Middle English | -ful | Appended to nouns to form adjectives denoting... |
| 4 | Old English | -ful | full of; -ful |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | -fullaz | -ful |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | fullaz | full; the whole, the entire |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | pl̥h₁nós | full |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | pleh₁- | to fill |
Words derived from “unfruitful”