Unfertilised

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Land or soil that has not been treated with added nutrients or fertilizing substances
2. Ground that lacks applied fertilizer and has received no chemical or organic soil enrichment
3. Soil that remains untreated by fertilizing agents and has not been enhanced with nutrient supplements

Etymology: The prefix "un-" has been in English since Old English, where it came down from Proto-Germanic and was attached freely to verbs, adjectives and participles to express reversal or negation. Its ancestor is traced back to a Proto-Indo-European negative, and it is one of the oldest productive elements in the language, which is why it can be stuck onto nearly any participle without any special coinage. "Unfertilised" is simply "un-" added to "fertilised", the past participle of "fertilise", so it means "not fertilised". The base verb descends from "fertile", ultimately from Latin "fertilis", meaning "fruitful" or "bearing", which was carried into English through French. The pairing is entirely transparent: a biologist describing an egg that never received sperm, or a farmer describing soil that received no fertiliser, uses the same negation applied to the same participle.

Synonyms: barren, sterile, infertile

Antonyms: fertile, fruitful