proliferousadj.
/prəˈlɪf(ə)rəs/, U.S. /prəˈlɪf(ə)rəs/, /proʊˈlɪf(ə)rəs/ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > [adjective]
bearingOE
genderinga1398
multiplyinga1400
fecundc1420
broodya1522
fruitful1526
breeding1552
procreant1588
procreative1598
increasing1600
broodious1602
prolifical1608
conceptiousa1616
plenteousa1616
conceptive1630
feracious1637
propagatory1647
prolific1650
proliferous1654
propagative1654
progenial1664
teemful1755
progenitive1769
breedy1824
proligerous1836
progenital1837
philoprogenitive1857
eugenesic1864
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot iv. x. 238 That her Greatnesse was augmented by the proliferous Contagion of Don Ferdinand.
1692 O. Walker Greek & Rom. Hist. 185 A Feast of such Fishes as are here expressed, Lobsters, Pulpes; such viz. as are very Proliferous and Inciters to Lust.
2.
a. Botany. Composed of many or compound parts; spec. producing buds, fruit, flowers, or shoots from a flower, leaf, or other normally terminal part; having adventitious buds. Later also: reproducing by means of buds or other vegetative structures, esp. in unusual positions, as on leaves; viviparous.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > bud > [adjective] > budding or having buds
gemmedc1420
embudded1523
budded1552
pullulant1558
budding1561
buddy1598
knotted1626
pullulating1666
in (the) knota1670
proliferous1674
prolified1866
proligerous1890
1674 [see proliferousness n. at Derivatives].
1702 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 23 1262 The main difference..is its panicle, which is here ramose or proliferose.
1759 J. Hill (title) The origin and production of proliferous flowers, with the culture at large for raising double from single, and proliferous from the double.
1832 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. (ed. 2) II. 78 These hydrophytes are in general proliferous, so that the smallest fragment of a branch can be developed into a perfect plant.
1849 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. 102 Leaves bearing buds on their margin, are called proliferous.
1901 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 28 113 The proliferous specimen of P[lantago] arista..has the following unusual characters: Just below the middle of the central peduncle is a group of bracts developed into leaves.
1940 R. J. Preston Rocky Mountain Trees 251 Flowers pink; fruit green, proliferous (one growing from another), usually spineless.
1984 Brittonia 36 221 N[ymphaea] prolifera is named for its proliferous asexual reproduction, which involves the production of tuber–bearing ‘flowers’.
2004 Winston–Salem Jrnl. (N. Carolina) (Nexis) 8 May e1 In some ferns, the habit of forming tiny replicas can occur on the frond or on what are called proliferous frond tips.
b. Zoology. Reproducing or multiplying by budding; spec. (of a part of a hydrozoan or tunicate) producing sexual zooids. Later more widely: reproducing prolifically. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > colony or compound organism > [adjective] > that reproduces by budding
proliferous1856
1856 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca iii. 345 The embryos are attached in pairs to a double tube (or ‘proliferous stolon’) connected with the sinus to the right of the heart.
1884 A. Sedgwick & F. G. Heathcote tr. C. Claus Elem. Text-bk. Zool.: Protozoa to Insecta vii. 237 The proliferous Polyps develop generative buds on their walls.
1917 Amer. Naturalist 51 573 Within the body of the solitary salpa..lies a compact intestinal tract called the nucleus. Closely associated with it is an organ, ‘the proliferous stolon’, which by segmenting distally gives rise to the zooids.
1995 Phytoparasitica 23 177 The pea leafminer, Liriomyza huidobrensis.., recently introduced into Israel, has proven to be extremely proliferous and difficult to control.
c. Medicine. = proliferative adj. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > characteristics > [adjective] > spreading or invasive
runninga1382
walkinga1398
erratic1547
accessive1575
errant1621
vagrant1656
metastatic1822
ambulant1828
aggressive1851
proliferous1874
proliferative1888
metastasizing1906
invasive1926
1874 D. B. St. J. Roosa Dis. Ear 268 The tinnitus is apt to be more troublesome in the proliferous than in the catarrhal form.
1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 757 A ‘proliferous’ cyst by ulceration and protrusion of its contents may give rise to a wart-like excrescence that may readily be mistaken for a large wart.
1988 European Jrnl. Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics 13 285 Secondary proliferous melanoic tumors developed in the environment of liver tissue separately from the embedded tumor location.
3. Of a plant: prolific; producing many flowers. Now chiefly U.S.rare before mid 20th cent.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > flower or part containing reproductive organs > flower or flowering plant > [adjective] > having flowers or blossom > producing many, few, or a specific number
well-flowered1600
proliferous1682
multiflorous1760
uniflorous1760
triflorous1771
biflorous1785
unifloral1849
multifloral1851
oliganthous1857
polyanthous1858
trifloral1860
biflorate1864
trianthous1891
decemflorous-
1682 G. Wheler Journey into Greece vi. 479 The Narcissus Flowers..so proliferous.
1950 Charleroi (Pennsylvania) Mail 10 May 6/1 We curse their proliferous natures... Dandelions..are the victims of one of man's strangest quirks. They are despised because they are plentiful.
1972 News Jrnl. (Chicago) 27 Sept. 1 Harke poses with his favourite and most proliferous plant... Harke takes special pride in fact that the single plant produced as many as five flowers at one time.
2004 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 8 May j9 Violas are equally frost-tough but produce a smaller, yet more proliferous, flower than pansies.
4. That proliferates; characterized by abundant production or a rapid increase; numerous, abundant, copious.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > abundance > [adjective]
goodeOE
broadOE
fullOE
large?c1225
rifec1225
fulsomea1325
abundanta1382
plenteousa1382
copiousc1384
plentifula1400
ranka1400
aboundc1425
affluentc1425
aboundable?1440
seedy1440
manyfulc1450
ample1472
olda1500
richa1500
flowing1526
fertilent1535
wallingc1540
copy1546
abounding1560
fat1563
numbrous1566
good, great store1569
round1592
redundant1594
fruitful1604
cornucopian1609
much1609
plenty?a1610
pukka1619
redundant1621
uberant1622
swelling1628
uberous1633
numerousa1635
superfluent1648
full tide1649
lucky1649
redounding1667
numerose1692
bumper1836
prolific1890
proliferous1915
1915 T. Veblen Imperial Germany & Industr. Revol. ii. 25 A proliferous growth of ceremonial.
1931 T. Dreiser Dawn xxxiv. 182 Proliferous and highly-barbered hair and whiskers.
1955 Jrnl. Relig. 35 155/1 The church..scurries gracelessly for cover into its priestly office and its proliferous incidental ministries.
2004 Curve (Nexis) Aug. 50 The 300 species of vertebrates and 10 percent of humans who have sex with their own gender are too proliferous for science to dismiss as abnormal.
5. Of a writer or creative artist: = prolific adj. 3c.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > writer or author > [adjective] > writing much or on many subjects
voluminous1611
polygraphic1735
omniscriptive1821
pangraphic1821
multo-scribbling1822
omniscribent1891
proliferous1959
1959 Mod. Law Rev. 22 227 A proliferous writer who has now been ‘Inside’ nearly everywhere.
1982 Times 29 July 8/3 A proliferous translator from the Urdu.
2000 Valley Independent (Monessen, Pa.) 26 July 4 a/2 A proliferous writer, he had many articles, short stories and poems published.
Compounds
proliferous pink n. either of two plants of central and western Europe, Petrorhagia nanteuilii and P. prolifera (family Caryophyllaceae), having an epicalyx of brown bracts enclosing a head of pink flowers that open successively; also called childing pink.
ΚΠ
1756 J. Hill Brit. Herbal 163/2 Proliferous Pink. Caryophyllus prolifer. The root is long, white, woody, divided, and furnished with many fibres.
1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 409 Childing Sweet Williams. Childing Pinks. Proliferous Pink.
1831 W. J. Hooker Brit. Flora (ed. 2) 200 D[ianthus] prolifer, Linn. (proliferous Pink)... Readily distinguished by its small, deep-coloured flowers, of which only one in a head expands at a time, and by the large, dry, brown and membranaceous scales which envelop the calyces of several flowers.
1964 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 10 Aug. a3/3 The proliferous pink closes between 1 and 2 p.m.
Derivatives
proˈliferously adv. Biology and Medicine by proliferation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > colony or compound organism > [adverb] > by budding
proliferously1786
the world > plants > part of plant > bud > [adverb] > by budding
proliferously1786
1786 J. Abercrombie Gardener's Pocket Dict. III. 189 These are singular plants, rising with many compressed, broad, jointed, fleshy, prickly, almost leafless branches, produced proliferously out of one another, in many ovalish and roundish joints.
1846 J. D. Dana U.S. Exploring Exped.: Zoophytes 324 Folia thin,..sometimes lacerate and proliferously extended.
1864 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. I. §192 Fronds originating proliferously from other fronds.
1985 Folia Parasitologica 32 289 The abscess was at a proliferously reparative phase.
proˈliferousness n. rare †(a) Botany the state or fact of having many parts, as in a compound flower (obsolete); (b) productiveness, prolificness.
ΚΠ
1674 J. Ray in T. Birch Hist. Royal Soc. (1757) III. 170 Proliferousness of the flower in childing daisy, scabious and other plants with a compound flower.
1897 E. Bellamy Equality xxxviii. 411 Wherever the poverty and squalor chiefly abounded..humankind multiplied like rabbits, while in proportion as the economic level of a class was raised its proliferousness declined.
1982 Contemp. Lit. 23 271 That I am so passionately committed is probably evidenced by my presumed proliferousness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1654