aurifer Latin · revision 36564

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la aurum}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈau̯.rɪ.fɛr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈaːu̯.ri.fer]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''aurifer''' (feminine aurifera, neuter auriferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|aurum|-fer|t1=gold|t2=bearing]].^(OLD 2012)^(Etymonline)^(Bianchi & Lelli 2014) The noun [[m|la|aurum]] goes back to [[itc-pro|*auso-]] and [[ine-pro|*h₂é-h₂us-o-|t=glow]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL calls it a poets' word from Catullus on.^(TLL) Catullus speaks of the gold-bearing river Tagus, ''amnis aurifer Tagus'',^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010) and Cicero, in a verse translation from Sophocles, of the dragon watching the tree of golden fruit in the garden of the Hesperides.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was used of rivers whose sands carry gold, the Tagus above all, in the Tibullan corpus, Ovid, Pliny the Elder and Martial;^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) of gold mines in Lucan and Statius; and of lands and peoples rich in gold in Martial, Florus and Silius Italicus.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In myth it described golden fruit and treasure: Valerius Flaccus has the grove of the Golden Fleece.^(OLD 2012) Georges takes Seneca's golden spoils of the watchful serpent as shining like gold.^(Georges 1913)

+

+ Medieval writers kept it for gold-bearing rivers such as the Tagus and the Rhine, and also used it for gilded.^(MLW)^(DMLBS) Learned borrowings include French [[m|fr|aurifère]], Italian [[m|it|aurifero]] and English [[m|en|auriferous]], first recorded in 1727.^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the tree with golden fruit.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of the river Tagus.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the Tagus.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it of gold mines.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the sands of the Tagus.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1727 – English borrows it as [[m|en|auriferous]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Producing [[m|en|gold]], gold-bearing (of a mine, a land or a people).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(of a river or its sands)'' Carrying gold.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(mythology)'' Bearing golden fruit.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Golden, shining like gold.^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' [[m|en|gilded|alt=Gilded]].^(MLW)^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[aurāria]]

+ * [[aurārius]]

+ * [[aurāta]]

+ * [[aurātilis]]

+ * [[aurātūra]]

+ * [[aurātus]]

+ * [[aureātus]]

+ * [[aureolus]]

+ * [[en|auriferous]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}