prolific

Prolific entered English around 1635 from French prolifique, which traces to Latin prōlificus, itself formed from prōlēs ("offspring") + -ficus ("making").

The facts available don't describe a documented shift in meaning over time, so it's honest to say only that it arrived in English in the 1630s already carrying its Latin sense of "making offspring."

It shares its root prōlēs ("offspring") with words built on that same Latin stem, though the facts here don't name a specific English cognate beyond prolific itself.