nido

Forms

nido m (plural nidos)^[1] Old Spanish also had nio (plural nios, níos), as in the Moamín of 1250.^[2][3] Nio survives in the Galician of Lugo, in Salamanca, in western Asturias and in popular Castilian;^[4] Aragonese has nido, Ribagorzan nedo.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nido, inherited from Latin nīdus (“nest”).^[5][6][1][7] The same Latin word is Portuguese ninho, Galician niño, Asturian nieru, Aragonese niedo, Catalan niu, French nid and Italian nido.^[8][4][9] In Catalan the final ⟨u⟩ is the regular outcome of Latin /d/ at the end of the word.^[10]

De Vaan traces the Latin noun to Proto-Italic *nizdos and Proto-Indo-European *nisdós (“nest”), a compound of *ni (“down”) and the root *sed- (“to sit”), which also gives sedeō (“to sit”): the nest is the place where the bird settles.^[11][1][12] Its cognates include Sanskrit नीड (nīḍá), Old Church Slavonic гнѣздо (gnězdo), Old High German nest and Old English nest.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest text record is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in a version of Obadiah: si en estrellas pusieres to nido, yo dent te faria decender “if you set your nest among the stars, I would bring you down from there”.^[3] Corominas's Breve diccionario dates it 1251.^[5] In the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250) a man is helpless como corneja quandol roban el nido “like a crow when its nest is robbed”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario tells of a stone the female vulture brings to its nido.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 defines the nest as the place where the bird lives, lays and hatches, and records the proverb en los nidos de antaño no hay pájaros hogaño, about chances that do not return.^[14] Autoridades in 1734 extends it to the holes where small animals and insects breed.^[15] In thieves' cant the word meant “house” as early as Hidalgo's vocabulary of 1609.^[16]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has the figurative senses “one's house or homeland” (el patrio nido) and “a den where people of bad conduct gather”.^[17] The modern DLE adds the ward for newborn babies in hospitals and maternity homes and the origin of immaterial things (nido de herejías).^[6] In the Dominican Republic, Peru and Bolivia a nido is a nursery school for small children, and in the Philippines the word names the edible bird's nest.^[18][19][1]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – nido in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[3]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses it of a crow's nest.^[3]
• 1250 – the form níos in the Moamín.^[3]
• 1251 – first record according to Corominas.^[5]
• 1495 – the derivatives nidal and anidar.^[5]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Peru.^[20]
• 1609 – Hidalgo records the cant sense “house”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb of the nests of last year.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “homeland” and “den of rogues”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nest: the bed that birds make of grass, straw, feathers or other soft material to lay their eggs and rear their young: Las golondrinas volvieron a su nido bajo el tejado.^[6][1]
2. A cavity, hole or group of cells where other animals breed: un nido de avispas.^[6]
3. The place where hens and other birds lay their eggs.^[6]
4. A place someone often goes to.^[6]
5. In hospitals and maternity homes, the nursery for newborn babies.^[6]
6. (figurative) The place where something immaterial originates, a breeding ground: un nido de intrigas.^[6]
7. (figurative) The basis or foundation of something.^[6]
8. (figurative) One's home or homeland: el patrio nido.^[6][17]
9. A den where despicable people, animals or things gather.^[6]
10. (Dominican Republic, Peru, Bolivia) A nursery school for small children.^[18][19][1]

Word family

• nidada
• nidal
• anidar

Related words

• nicho
• nidificar
• Latin nīdus
• Catalan niu

Usage notes

Nido de abeja is smocking, an embroidery on gathered cloth resembling a honeycomb, and nido de ametralladoras a protected machine-gun emplacement.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. nido
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nido
4. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. nido
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nido
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. nido
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. nido
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. nidus
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 491
10. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 935
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. nido
13. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. nido
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1162
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 666
16. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 188
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 599
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. nido
19. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. nido
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. nido