A.Word.A.Day --acarpous

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acarpous

PRONUNCIATION:

(ay-KAHR-puhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Not producing fruit; sterile.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek akarpos, from a- (not) + karpos (fruit). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kerp- (to gather or harvest) which is also the source of harvest, excerpt, carpet, and scarce.

USAGE:

"According to the doomsayers, if a satellite doesn't clobber you into the next millennium, there's always the danger its plutonium payload will turn your neighbourhood area into an acarpous wasteland."
Adrian Bradley; Space Junk Roulette; The Australian (Sydney); Nov 19, 1996.

See more usage examples of acarpous in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Pride, like laudanum and other poisonous medicines, is beneficial in small, though injurious in large, quantities. No man who is not pleased with himself, even in a personal sense, can please others. -Frederick Saunders, librarian and essayist (1807-1902)

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