nidus

Forms

nīdus m (genitive nīdī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *nizdo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *nisdo- (“nest”), a compound of *ni (“down”) and the root *sd- (“to sit”), “where one sits down”.^[2][1] Cognate with Sanskrit नीड (nīḍá, “nest, lair”), Old Armenian նիստ (nist, “residence”), Old Church Slavonic гнѣздо (gnězdo, “nest”), Welsh nyth (“nest”), Lithuanian lìzdas (“nest”) and English nest.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[2][4] in whose Rudens someone wants to snatch the swallows from their nest.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means the nest of a bird or other creature;^[3][5] Cicero speaks of birds building nests, and Virgil of the swallow hanging its nest from the beams.^[3][5] By transfer it is a lofty retreat, as Horace's “nest of high Acherontia”.^[3] By metonymy it is a brood of nestlings, as in the Georgics, where birds carry food to their greedy young.^[3] Varro uses it apparently of a nest-shaped bowl, and Martial of a pigeonhole in a bookshop.^[3] Church Latin glosses it nest, brood.^[6] English borrowed nidus in 1742.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of swallows' nests.^[3][2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of birds building nests.^[5][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of nests and of broods.^[3][5][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a lofty town.^[3][4]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial of a pigeonhole.^[3][4]
• 1742 – Borrowed into English as nidus.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nest of a bird or other creature.^[3][5][6][1]
2. A lofty retreat, an eyrie.^[3]
3. A brood of nestlings; the young of other animals.^[3][6]
4. A nest-shaped vessel, a bowl.^[3]
5. A compartment, pigeonhole.^[3]

Word family

• nīdificō
• nīdifōrmis

Related words

• sedeō
• English nest

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com