mammiferous

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   historical zoology: mammalian; belonging to the class of animals whose females have mammary glands

   The nineteenth-century naturalist described the whale as a mammiferous animal.

2. 2
   adj

   anatomical or humorous: having mammae or conspicuous breasts

   The satirical drawing exaggerated the figure into a conspicuously mammiferous form.

Formed from Latin mamma, meaning breast or teat, the connective -i-, and -ferous, meaning bearing or carrying, from Latin ferre, to bear. Mammiferous therefore literally means breast-bearing; in older zoological writing it served as a synonym of mammalian.

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