| Word | philoprogenitive |
|---|---|
| Date | August 5, 2009 |
| Type | adjective |
| Syllables | fill-uh-proh-JEN-uh-tiv |
| Etymology | "Philoprogenitive" (a combination of "phil-," meaning "loving" or "having an affinity for," and Latin "progenitus," meaning "begot" or "begotten") can refer to the production of offspring or to the loving of them. Nineteenth-century phrenologists used the word to designate the "bump" or "organ" of the brain believed to be the seat of a parent's instinctual love for his or her children. Despite the word's scientific look and sound, however, it appears, albeit not very frequently, in all types of writing -- technical, literary, informal, and otherwise. |
| Examples | "As the multitudes born in the philoprogenitive years following World War II leave the labor force after 2010, the retired population will mushroom." (A.F. Ehrbar, Fortune, August 1980) |
| Definition | 1 : tending to produce offspring : prolific 2 : of, relating to, or characterized by love of offspring |
Tags: wordoftheday::adjective
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