auriferous
- Containing or yielding gold, especially used of rocks, ore deposits, or streams.
In a sentence
- Prospectors flooded the region after reports emerged of auriferous gravel in the river basin.
- The geologist's survey identified several auriferous quartz veins running through the granite hillside.
Usage note. Remember the Latin root 'aurum' (gold) also appears in 'aurora' (golden dawn) and in the chemical symbol Au—useful for connecting related vocabulary.
Where it comes from
English auriferous — “yielding or containing gold” · entered English 17th c.
From Latin 'aurifer', meaning 'gold-bearing', composed of 'aurum' (gold) and 'ferre' (to bear or carry), plus the English adjectival suffix '-ous'. 'Aurum' is the classical Latin word for gold, whose chemical symbol Au derives from it. The word entered English in the 17th century in geological and mineralogical contexts.