New Latin for 'water-bearer' — aqua (water) + ferre (to carry), describing rock that stores and transmits groundwater.
A body of permeable rock or sediment that stores and transmits groundwater; an underground layer of water-bearing rock from which water can be extracted using wells.
From Latin aquifer (water-bearing), a compound of aqua (water) + -fer (bearing, carrying), the adjectival suffix from ferre (to carry, to bear), from PIE *bher- (to carry, to bear). The PIE root *bher- is among the most widespread in Indo-European: it gave Latin ferre (to carry), fertile (that which bears fruit), suffer (to carry under), confer, defer, infer, refer, transfer, and prefer; Old English beran (to bear, to carry), giving bear, birth, burden, and barn (a place to bear/store grain). Latin aqua (water), possibly from PIE *h₂ekʷ-eh₂ (water, river), gave aquatic, aquarium, aqueduct, Aquarius, and
The Ogallala Aquifer beneath the Great Plains of the United States is one of the largest aquifers in the world, containing enough water to fill Lake Huron. It took millions of years to accumulate, but intensive irrigation since the 1950s has been depleting it far faster than natural recharge can replace it. In some areas, water levels have