entry
sterile
/ˈstɛɹaɪl/Unable to produce offspring or growth
From Proto-Indo-European ster (lacking).
from Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Latin sterilis "barren, unproductive, unfruitful; unrequited; unprofitable." This is held to be
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Latin sterilis "barren, unproductive, unfruitful; unrequited; unprofitable." This is held to be
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Latin sterilis "barren, unproductive, unfruitful; unrequited; unprofitable." This is held to be
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Latin sterilis "barren, unproductive, unfruitful; unrequited; unprofitable." This is held to be
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourcefrom Old French stérile "not producing fruit" and directly
+1 more sourceA word that now makes us think of hospital trays and laboratory gloves once lived in the world of orchards and fields. Latin sterilis meant a tree that would not bear fruit, and English picked it up in the mid-1400s before stretching it to people, then to ideas, then to anything so lifeless it seems to have been swept clean of possibility. The family resemblance to fertile is delicious: one word is all growth and bounty, the other is the bare patch where nothing takes root. And tucked behind the whole thing is a deeper, slightly spooky ancestor, *ster-, which may have meant 'lacking' or even 'stiff' — as if a thing that cannot bend toward life simply stays rigid and empty. That is the memory behind sterile: not just absence, but a stubborn, deadened kind of emptiness.
The Story
A word that now makes us think of hospital trays and laboratory gloves once lived in the world of orchards and fields. Latin sterilis meant a tree that would not bear fruit, and English picked it up in the mid-1400s before stretching it to people, then to ideas, then to anything so lifeless it seems to have been swept clean of possibility. The family resemblance to fertile is delicious: one word is all growth and bounty, the other is the bare patch where nothing takes root. And tucked behind the whole thing is a deeper, slightly spooky ancestor, *ster-, which may have meant 'lacking' or even 'stiff' — as if a thing that cannot bend toward life simply stays rigid and empty. That is the memory behind sterile: not just absence, but a stubborn, deadened kind of emptiness.
Kin & Kindred
From 'ster'·lacking; possibly stiff, rigid
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From '-ilis'·adjectival ending forming qualities or states
Derived Terms
English words from this root