English edit

Etymology edit

From macule +‎ -i- +‎ -ferous.

Adjective edit

maculiferous (not comparable)

  1. (rare) Having macules or spots.
    • 1863, John Herschel, Good words, page 280:
      [] combined with the earth's rotation on the axis, so the maculiferous belts of the sun may owe their origin to a greater equatorial efflux of heat, combined with the axial rotation of the luminary.
    • 1870, Warren de la Rue, “Researches on Solar Physics”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London[1], volume 160, page 397:
      They place in a very clear and unmistakable light the anticipation in point of time of the occurrence of the maximum of maculiferous excitement before the middle of the total period which the present rapidly increasing number of spots actually in progress seems to promise fully to confirm for the period (1866·6-1877·7); and here I cannot help observing that although the lengths of the three periods here embraced vary between 9·81 and 12·68 years, yet the mean of the three is almost exactly 11·1, and this agrees with the whole course of the solar history since 1800, which was a year of maximum.
    • 1962, “fragment for o'casey”, in George Dorsey, editor, Contact: The San Francisco Collection of New Writing, Art and Ideas, numbers 10-14:
      There on the Spanish Steps / sunlight had long since gone, / leaving maculiferous American ladies

Synonyms edit