English → Latin
“fruitless” in Latin
īnfēcundusunfruitful, infertilesterilisbarren, sterile; unprofitable, futileinūtilisuseless, unserviceable, unprofitable; hurtful, injurious; void, null, invalid, without any legal usevānusvain, empty, vacant, void; unsubstantial; groundless, baseless, meaningless, pointless, worthless, ineffectual, mindlessirritusinvalid, void, null and void; ineffective, useless, irrelevantincipiōto begin, to commenceprexprayer; request; entreatycassushollow, empty, devoid of something; lacking; useless, fruitless, vain, futileinānisempty, void, hollow; vain; purposeless, meaningless, worthless, useless, fruitless, empty, idle
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
fruitless
infecundus (of the soil; opposed to fecundus): sterilis (barren; of a year; opposed to fertilis: of the soil, opposed to opimus): inutilis (useless): vanus (that remains without effect, vain; e.g., undertaking, inceptum): irritus (opposed to ratus; followed by no substantial effect; e.g., inceptum; fruitless requests, preces; labor, labor). (The words are found in this connection and order.) vanus et irritus; irritus et vanus: fruitless things, cassa, orum; inania, ium: to take fruitless trouble or pains, operam perdere; operam frustra consumere or conterere; oleum et operam perdere (the last proverbially, Cic., ad Div., 7, 1, 3); saxum sarrire (also proverbially, Martisalis, 3, 91, 20); frustra laborem suscipere.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for fruitless?
- The usual Latin words for “fruitless” are īnfēcundus, sterilis, inūtilis; also vānus, irritus, incipiō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.