Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRO-LIF'IC, or PRO-LIF'IC-AL, a. [It. and Sp. prolifico; Fr. prolifique; L. proles, offspring, and facio, to make.]

1. Producing young or fruit; fruitful; generative; productive; applied to animals and plants; as, a prolific female; a prolific tree.
2. Productive; having the quality of generating; as, a controversy prolific of evil consequences; a prolific brain.
3. A prolific flower, [prolifer,] in botany, is one which produces a second flower from its own center, or which has smaller flowers growing out of the principal one. But proliferous is commonly used. – Encyc. Martyn.