a. [f. L. cornifer horn-bearing (f. cornū horn + -fer bearing) + -OUS.]
† 1. Producing or having horns. Obs.
1650. T. Blount, trans. Estienne’s Art Devises, 72. The corniferous cressant.
1651. J. F[reake], Agrippa’s Occ. Philos., 143. Elevating corniferous humors into his head, and producing horns.
2. Geol. Containing or producing hornstone.
1873. Dawson, Earth & Man, v. 90. The ‘Corniferous limestone,’ so called from the masses of hornstone … contained in it.
1883. S. M. Burnham, Limestones, etc. 50. The Corniferous period of the Devonian age.
