(adj): vs. hospitable) -- (unfavorable to life or growth
(adj): not bearing offspring
(adj): vs. fertile), unfertile, infertile -- (incapable of reproducing
(adj): completely wanting or lacking
(adj): vs. existent) -- (not having existence or being or actuality
(n): an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
(n): a wild and uninhabited area left in its natural condition
BARrEn
At this barren enterprise
Rat-shrewd go her squint eyes
from "Two Sisters of Persephone," Sylvia Plath
I wouldn't say poor choice of words, I would say cruel. The usage is ironic, which is normally a good thing, but in this case, the words were being used for evil.
Poor choice of words indeed, for the story in question.
The word barren always reminds me of "Die Frau ohne Schatten", an opera entirely devoted to the subject of barrenness (well, OK there's all that mythic, symbolic stuff with the renunciation and redemption at the end too, I suppose).
I was just providing it as an example of a very poor choice of words.
I don't think it actually means without child in that sense. The normal sense is unable to conceive children, and in this case, the woman was deliberately barren, that is, deliberately not conceiving.
To be without child.