Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Producing geese; that is, producing the cirripeds formerly called tree-geese or goose-mussels, which adhere to submerged wood or stone, but were formerly supposed to grow on trees, and then to drop off into the water and turn into geese: an epithet of the barnacle, Lepas anatifera, and of the trees upon which it was supposed to grow. See Anatifa, Lepas.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Zoöl.) Producing ducks; -- applied to
Anatifæ , under the absurd notion of their turning into ducks or geese. Seebarnacle .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Producing
ducks . Formerly used ofbarnacles , since it was believed that they produced ducks and geese.
Etymologies
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Examples
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dystopos commented on the word anatiferous
see barnacle goose
July 10, 2007
ruzuzu commented on the word anatiferous
"Producing geese; that is, producing the cirripeds formerly called tree-geese or goose-mussels, which adhere to submerged wood or stone, but were formerly supposed to grow on trees, and then to drop off into the water and turn into geese: an epithet of the barnacle, Lepas anatifera, and of the trees upon which it was supposed to grow."
--Cent. Dict.
October 23, 2012
deinonychus commented on the word anatiferous
I hope I'll find some good occasion to use this. Soon...
January 19, 2013