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auriferous. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
auriferous, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
auriferous in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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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)
- 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 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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