nido

Forms

nido m (plural nidi)^[1] The popular Tuscan variant is nidio.^[2][3][4] Old and literary Italian also had the feminine plural le nida.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nīdus (“nest; dwelling”).^[7][8][9][1] The same word is Old French ni (today French nid), Occitan niu, Catalan niu, Spanish nido and Portuguese ninho, and Dalmatian naid.^[8][10]

nīdus goes back through Proto-Italic *nizdos to Proto-Indo-European *nisdós (“nest”), a compound of Proto-Indo-European *ni (“down”) and the zero grade of Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”): a place where one settles down.^{[11][8][1][12]} The same compound gave Old High German nest, Old English nest and English nest, Welsh nyth, Sanskrit नीड (nīḍá) and Old Armenian նիստ (nist, “residence”), and with altered forms Lithuanian lìzdas and Old Church Slavonic гнѣздо (gnězdo).^[11][8][1]

Spoken Latin formed Vulgar Latin *nidax, the source of nidiace, a fledgling; nidificare came later as a learned word.^[7][13] The Tuscan nidio is explained by Prati as the noun with the suffix ⟨-io⟩, as in cervio, and by Sabatini–Coletti as perhaps a back-formation from nidiare.^[13][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bonagiunta Orbicciani, who died before 1257, with the sense “shelter that animals build to live in, lay their eggs, raise their young or spend the winter”.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

From the bird's nest the word spread to the lairs of other animals (mice, wasps, snakes) and, by the time of Dante, to one's own home, the house where one was born or has a family.^[7][13] Petrarch uses it for his native land: Non è questo il mio nido / ove nutrito fui sì dolcemente? (“Is this not my nest, where I was so sweetly nourished?”).^[3][13] The proverb a ogni uccello il suo nido è bello says that everyone loves their own home.^[14][15]

The derivative nidiata, a brood, appears in Boccaccio, and by the 17th century it was also used for a family of children.^[7] In a bad sense nido became a den of criminals, and nido di vipere a circle of spiteful people.^[9][14] Military language has nido di mitragliatrici, a machine-gun post.^[14]

In the 20th century the word came to mean a nursery where small children are looked after while their mothers work, now usually asilo nido.^[16][9] It also names nest-shaped pasta and the honeycomb weave nido d'ape.^[9][2]

Timeline

• Before 1257 – Bonagiunta Orbicciani uses nido.^[7][9]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini has nidiace “fledgling”.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses nido for one's home.^[7]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio has nidiata “brood”.^[7]
• About 1350 – nidificare “to nest” appears in the Italian Crescenzi.^[7]
• 1618 – Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger uses nidiata for a family of children.^[7]
• 20th century – nido comes to mean a day nursery.^[16]
• 1958 – nidicolo and nidifugo are recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. nest: the structure birds build to lay and hatch their eggs and raise their young.^[9][2]
2. The lair or nest of other animals, such as insects, rodents or snakes: un nido di calabroni sotto la grondaia.^[9][2][14]
3. The birds hatched in one nest, a brood; nidiata.^[9][2]
4. (figurative) One's home, the house where one was born or lives; a cosy dwelling, as in nido d'amore.^[9][2][3]
5. (literary) One's native land.^[9][3]
6. (pejorative) A den of criminals;^[9][14] nido di vipere, a group of malicious, treacherous people.^[9][14]
7. A person who harbours a particular set of qualities, good or bad: era un nido di rancori.^[9][4]
8. (usually plural) Long pasta rolled into the shape of a nest.^[9][3]
9. A day nursery for children up to three; short for asilo nido.^[9][14][3]

Word family

• annidare
• snidare
• nidiata
• nidiaceo
• nidiace
• nidificare
• nidificazione
• nidicolo
• nidifugo
• nidiare
• nidiandolo
• asilo nido

Related words

• nidamento
• sedere
• Latin nīdus
• English nest

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 428
6. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 296
13. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 698
14. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2584