Middle English Dictionary Entry
sterilitẹ̄ n.
Entry Info
| Forms | sterilitẹ̄ n. Also steriliti, sterelite. |
| Etymology | OF sterilité, sterelité. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) The incapacity to produce children, infertility, barrenness; also, the state of being infertile; (b) famine; also person.; also, unproductiveness of land, inability to support crops.
Associated quotations
a
- ?a1425 *Chauliac(1) (NY 12)150b/a : Sterilitee [L sterilitas], i. barennez, most byfalleþ of þe partie of wymmen.
- a1500(?c1425) Spec.Sacer.(Add 36791)165/16 : Elizabeth..hadde conceyuyd in hire olde age and sterilite þrouȝ the grace of God.
- a1500(?c1425) Spec.Sacer.(Add 36791)199/17 : Anna..sayde to hire-self..'lugebo viduitatem meam et sterilitatem..I shal sorowe my wydowhede and sterilite.'
b
- (?1440) Palladius (DukeH d.2)1.168 : Fro thingis iij thou twynne: Sterilite, infirmyte, and synne; In bareyn londe to sette..vynys Destroyeth al the labour.
- a1475(?a1430) Lydg.Pilgr.(Vit C.13)23780 : vij yeres of Sterylite folwed on..whereof Ioseph took good hed.
- a1475(?a1430) Lydg.Pilgr.(Vit C.13)23854 : I called am..Of folkes alle, Sterility, which ha this hous maad ful bareyn, bothe of frut and ek of greyn.
- a1500(?c1425) Spec.Sacer.(Add 36791)134/35 : There was siche a sterelite and myschef of reyne in the countre..that the peple was..woundid with fawte of fruyte.
Supplemental Materials (draft)
Note: Med., etc., see further J.Norri, Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary, s.v. sterility.