n. The characteristic of being unproductive; lack of productiveness.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. The state of being unproductive, as land, stock, capital, labor, etc.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
n. the quality of lacking the power to produce
Word Usage
"Walton provides a chart with all the instances p.48, and suggests that the evidence points to the term denoting unproductiveness rather than lack of material form."