auriferous

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English

Etymology

From Latin aurifer (“gold-bearing”) + the English suffix -ous. The Latin term in turn derived from aurum (“gold”) + ferō (“I carry”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

auriferous (comparative more auriferous, superlative most auriferous)

  1. Containing or producing gold; gold-bearing.
    • a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: A Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, , published 1768, →OCLC, pages 70–71, lines 646–648:
      Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines, / That on the high equator ridgy riſe, / Whence many a burſting ſtream auriferous plays: [...]
    • 1854, Carl Friedrich Plattner, Sheridan Muspratt, The Use of the Blowpipe in the Qualitative and Quantitative Examination of Minerals, Ores, Furnace Products, and Other Metallic Combinations:
      To these [compounds] belong native gold, alloys of gold and silver, and the argentiferous gold, or auriferous silver, obtained from the assayings of auriferous minerals and ores.
    • 1887, R. A. Murray, Victoria. Geology and Physical Geography, page 126:
      In some places, however, quartz reefs, payably auriferous while in Silurian rock, have been followed down to subjacent granite, and have there been found to thin out and become unprofitable [...]

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