auriferous

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

• Rhymes: -ɪfəɹəs

auriferous (comparative more auriferous, superlative most auriferous)

1. Containing or producing gold; gold-bearing
   • Thomson

     whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays

   • 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 […]

• gold-bearing

• metalliferous

• -ferous