'antenniferous' originates from Latin elements: 'antenna' (Latin 'antenna') and the suffix '-ferous' (from Latin 'ferre'), where 'antenna' originally meant 'yard' or 'spar' (later used for a sensory appendage) and 'ferre' meant 'to bear'.

'antenniferous' was formed in modern scientific English by combining the noun 'antenna' (adopted into English in the post-18th-century biological sense of 'sensory appendage') with the Latin-derived suffix '-ferous' meaning 'bearing', producing the adjective 'antenniferous'.

Initially, 'antenna' denoted a mast or spar (in Latin), but in biological contexts it came to mean a sensory appendage; consequently, 'antenniferous' evolved to mean 'bearing antennae' in modern usage.