Fruitful means producing a rich yield of good results. A fruitful discussion, a fruitful partnership, prove fruitful.
It means giving much in return rather than merely working, which is the difference from successful. A fruitful discussion produced ideas nobody brought into the room. Its opposite is fruitless, which means it produced nothing at all.
1adjectivefruitfulProducing a rich yield of good results.
“Years of fruitful cooperation between the two universities have led to many new discoveries.”
fruitful is a quality.
Fruit plus -ful, from Latin fructus, produce or enjoyment, from frui, to enjoy.
Middle English
fruitefull
English, today
fruitful
From Middle English fruitefull, equivalent to fruit + ful. Compare Dutch vruchtvol, German fruchtvoll, Swedish fruktfull.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA