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melliferous

adj
/mɪˈlɪfəɹəs/UK/məˈlɪfəɹəs/US

Etymology

PIE word *mélit Learned borrowing from Latin mellifer (“honey-bearing, honey-producing, melliferous”) + English -ous (suffix forming adjectives denoting the presence of a quality, typically in abundance). Mellifer is derived from mel (“honey”) (plural form mella; ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mélit (“honey”)) + -fer (suffix meaning ‘bearing, bringing, carrying’).

  1. derived from *mélit✻ — “honey”
  2. learned borrowing from mellifer — “honey-bearing, honey-producing, melliferous”

Definitions

  1. Of a plant or its parts

    Of a plant or its parts: bearing any substance (such as nectar or pollen) which is collected by bees to produce honey.

    • Pliny [the Elder] ſays this flovver [the anemone] […] differs alſo from ranunclulus in not having a melliferous pore on the clavv of each petal.

  2. Producing honey.

    • It is stated that honey has been found in the galleries of certain exotic species of Ants, but it is doubtful whether they have not stolen it from some other animals. However this may be, the most perfect melliferous animals are the Bees.
    • [B]oth effective developmental beekeeping and population studies of honeybees are totally predicated on a knowledge of the natural distributions, relative population densities and carrying capacity of real or potential melliferous lands.

  3. Honeyed, sweet.

    • melliferous music
    • VVhat melliferous ſounds are theſe I hear, / Svviftly floating thro' the ambient air? / It is the note of pure ſeraphic fire, / Svveetly hailing our much honour'd Sire.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for melliferous. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA