conifer

From Latin cōnifer (“bearing cones”), by surface analysis, Latin cōnus (“cone”) +‎ -fer.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnɪfə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

conifer (plural conifers)

1. (botany) A plant belonging to the order Coniferales; a cone-bearing seed plant with vascular tissue, usually a tree.

• See also Thesaurus:conifer

• fir-cone, force in, in force, inforce

From cōnus (“cone”) + -fer (“-bearing”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkoː.nɪ.fɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔː.ni.fer]

cōnifer (feminine cōnifera, neuter cōniferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)

1. (hapax legomenon) bearing conical fruit

   Synonym: cōniger

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 3.677–681:

     cernimus astantis nequiquam lumine torvo
     Aetnaeos fratres caelo capita alta ferentis,
     concilium horrendum: quales cum vertice celso
     aeriae quercus aut coniferae cyparissi
     constiterunt, silva alta Iovis lucusve Dianae.

     • Translation by David West

       We saw the brotherhood of Etna standing there helpless, each with his one eye glaring and head held high in the sky, a fearsome gathering, standing like high-topped mountain oaks or cone-bearing cypresses in Jupiter's soaring forest or the grove of Diana.

Attested once in the Classical period (see quotations above).

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

• “conifer”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “conifer”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Borrowed from Latin conifer, French conifère.

conifer n (plural conifere)

1. conifer