Syn. -- Product; produce; fruit; work; performance; composition.
Pro*duc"tive (?), a. [F. productif, L. productivus fit for
prolongation.]
1. Having the quality or power of producing; yielding or furnishing
results; as, productive soil; productive enterprises; productive labor,
that which increases the number or amount of products.
2. Bringing into being; causing to exist; producing; originative; as,
an age productive of great men; a spirit productive of heroic
achievements.
And kindle with thy own productive fire.
Dryden.
This is turning nobility into a principle of virtue, and making it
productive of merit.
Spectator.
3. Producing, or able to produce, in large measure; fertile;
profitable.
-- Pro*duc"tive*ly, adv. -- Pro*duc"tive*ness, n.
Pro`duc*tiv"i*ty (?), n. The quality or state of being productive;
productiveness. Emerson.
Not indeed as the product, but as the producing power, the
productivity.
Coleridge.
Pro*duc"tress (?), n. A female producer.
||Pro*duc"tus (?), n. [NL. See Product.] (Paleon.) An extinct genus of
||brachiopods, very characteristic of the Carboniferous rocks.
Pro`e*gu"mi*nal (?), a. [Gr. &?;, p. pr. of &?; to lead the way: cf. F.
proÈgumËne.] (Med.) Serving to predispose; predisposing; as, a
proeguminal cause of disease.
Pro"em (?), n. [L. prooemium, Gr. &?;; &?; before + &?; way, course or
strain of a song: cf. F. proËme.] Preface; introduction; preliminary
observations; prelude.
Thus much may serve by way of proem.
Swift.
Pro"em, v. t. To preface. [Obs.] South.
Pro*em"bry*o (?), n. [Pref. pro- + embryo. ] (Bot.) (a) The series of
cells formed in the ovule of a flowering plant after fertilization, but
before the formation of the embryo. (b) The primary growth from the
spore in certain cryptogamous plants; as, the proembryo, or protonema,
of mosses.
Pro*e"mi*al (?), a. Introductory; prefatory; preliminary. [R.] Hammond.
Pro`emp*to"sis (?), n. [NL., from Gr. &?; to fall in before; &?; before
+ &?; in + &?; to fall.] (Chron.) The addition of a day to the lunar
calendar. [R.] See Metemptosis.
Pro"face (?), interj. [OF. prou face, prou fasse; prou profit + faire
to make, do.] Much good may it do you! -- a familiar salutation or
welcome. [Obs.]
Master page, good master page, sit. Proface!
Shak.