>From DUDLEY@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU Thu Jun 30 14:51:55 1994 Return-Path: DUDLEY@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU Received: from vaxf.Colorado.EDU (vaxf.Colorado.EDU [128.138.129.9]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.6.9/8.6.9/CNS-3.5) with SMTP id OAA11080 for ; Thu, 30 Jun 1994 14:51:54 -0600 Received: from TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (MAILER@TAMVM1) by VAXF.COLORADO.EDU (PMDF V4.2-12 #5062) id <01HE5NSQ68F4000EAA@VAXF.COLORADO.EDU>; Thu, 30 Jun 1994 14:46:37 MDT Received: from tamvm1.tamu.edu (NJE origin DUDLEY@TAMVM1) by TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 3653; Thu, 30 Jun 1994 13:35:08 -0500 Date: Thu, 30 Jun 1994 13:28:23 -0500 (CDT) From: Dudley Poston Subject: Terminology To: PPN Message-id: <01HE5NSQ68F6000EAA@VAXF.COLORADO.EDU> X-Envelope-to: ppn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT A question about demographic terminology was raised in a ppn message received today. Demographers generally distinguish between the ability to produce child- ren and the actual production of children, referring to the former as fecun- dity, and the latter as fertility. Medical scientists, however, do not make such a distinction, usually referring to fertility as reproductive ability. French-speaking and Spanish-speaking demographers (like their English-speaking counterparts) also distinguish between potential and actual reproduction, but reverse the terms. Hence, French-speaking demographers use the term fertilite, and Spanish-speaking demographers the term fertilidad, to refer to reproductive ability; and they use fecondite and fecundidad, respectively, to refer to actual reproductive performance. ....... Dudley Poston, Texas A&M University