Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 144. The word origin today is prolific. Okay.
So if somebody wants a screenshot, do right now. Let's get right to it. All right. and we got four
meanings and uses here. All right. Here's the first one. A prolific writer, songwriter , artist
etc. produces a lot of books, songs, works of art etc. This is the most common one. This is the one
I hear the most with the word prolific. All right. We can also use it for producing a lot of babies,
young plants etc. Yeah. This one I found a little strange at first because I sometimes I used to
have students ask me you know can we use it with a woman having children ? And at first I thought.
No. Because I don't usually hear somebody say that you know, a parent or a woman that had a lot
of babies, she's very prolific. The most common word I usually hear is fertile. You say that woman
is very fertile. She gets pregnant easily and she has a lot of babies, but when you do look it up,
you find out that that is a use or maybe it was a use. Maybe it was an older use that's still in the
dictionary, but I just don't hear it very much. I still think the word fertile is more common,
but you know maybe a long time ago they did use the word prolific with a woman and having
babies. Now of course we definitely use it with animals that's why today if I hear them
use it with one with women it almost sounds like you're kind of comparing a woman to like an animal
like having litters of children .... litters of children. That's what I mean. All right. Anyway,
let's continue. Just just to note that point. But we say young of course with
animals plants. Number three. A prolific sports player scores a lot of points, goals
etc. Or number four. Existing in large numbers. So you can have a general use as well . All right.
Let's continue. The term entered English from French 'prolifique. " Okay. And previously from
Latin "prolificus" If you break it down further in Latin, it was from "proles. " meaning offspring.
Plus "facere" meaning to do or to make. So to make offspring. So that is kind of the origin
of where it comes from. All right. And we got six examples to show just how you may hear it
used. Here's the first one. Picasso was a prolific artist. Again this is one of the most common ones.
Stephen King is a prolific writer. Definitely he's I don't know. I think he's written about 100 books
or something like that. All right. Let's continue. A rabbit is a prolific animal. Definitely we know
that they reproduce very quickly and very often. Cy Young was the most prolific pitcher for wins.
Okay. We can say this. This is sports. He had more wins than anybody else and he I mean he
was around a long time ago. Nobody ever caught up to him. And they even have an award for pitching
in the year. I think that if the winner the best pitcher wins an award they usually refer to it as
a Cy Young Award for a pitcher. All right. Number five. Corn is a prolific crop. Definitely lots of
corn all over the place. And number six. Well this would be the one like with a mother, but remember
this this one. When she lived in the 1700's The most prolific mother was a Russian woman
named Mrs. Vassilyon. Okay. Who had 69 children according to records. She had 16 pairs of twins,
seven pairs of triplets, four sets of quadruplets with 27 labors over 40 years. So if you figured
that out she never had a single baby at one time. She always had multiple births and that's how
it added up to 69 and she gave birth 27 times over 40 years. So I don't know if you can... if
anybody alive today can imagine that. But anyway, I guess she still holds the world record for the
most babies. Not the most babies at one time, but the most babies. Overall. Okay. Anyway I hope you
got it. I hope it was clear. I hope it was very informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.