Dot Wordsworth

The changing meaning of ‘prolific’, from Orwell to the Premier League

<i>The original sense – 'producing many offspring' – seems pretty much dead</i>

issue 17 January 2015

I read somewhere recently of a Soho artist who was a ‘prolific drinker’. The meaning is clear, but hasn’t the word been taken for a walk too far from the neatly hedged semantic field where it was bred?

Prolific is hardly ever used in the literal sense of ‘producing many offspring’.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY A MONTH FREE
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Try a month of Britain’s best writing, absolutely free.

Comments

Join the debate, free for a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.

Already a subscriber? Log in