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Nidus Latin ‘nest’ and Derivative Words in English

Nidus is used primarily in the medical sciences, where its chief meaning is: place where a disease process begins, breeding ground for a bacterial outbreak, focus or nest of an infection, the natural reservoir for a pathogen. A nidus can name the centre of a bladder stone or the material around which other lithic accretions (stones) form.

As with many Latin words used in science, there are two plurals. The Latin/British nidi and the clumsy American niduses — which always sounds to me like a person chomping a Three-Pounder Bust-a-Gut-Perforate-Your-Colon Burger while trying to say the word sinus. Both the sound of the word and the act are utter-ly revolting.

 Etymology

The classical Latin nīdus ‘nest’ is cognate with Dutch nest, German Nest and Swedish näste.Nidus might be cognate with Slavonic words for ‘nest’ like Russian гнездо gnezdo, Old Church Slavonic gnězdo, Polish gniazdo and Czech hnízdo. The initial Slavonic g/h is however somewhat tricky to account for.

What is certain is that nidus stems from an Indo-European compound noun form whose literal import is ‘place for sitting down,’ seen best in its Sanskrit etymon nida ‘resting-place’ = Sanskrit ni- prefix indicating downward motion + *sad/*sed/*set widespread Indo-European stem meaning ‘sit.’ Nisad in Sanskrit means ‘to nest.’

In formal anatomical nomenclature, nidus avis cerebelli names a groove in the brain, in the cerebellum between the posterior velum and uvula. Zoology uses nidus in its pure Latin meaning of ‘nest.’

 

Other Words from Nidus

Niche

One currently popular words from nidus in English is a borrowing from French, niche, a small recess in a wall to hold a statue or decorative vase.

Exemplary sentence: The niche in the wall held a large marble bust of George W. Bush. The niche was located in the bedroom of George W. Bush.

To find one’s niche in life is to discover one’s suitable position or calling.

A niche player is a business specialist, who may locate or create a niche market for a product.

A niche can be one’s special place, a lair, an apposite refuge. My niche is my workroom where my books and computer nestle.

Etymology of Niche

Niche word was in Middle French by 1395 CE and was used in English early in the seventeenth century. French may have borrowed niche from its Italian form nicho. The etymon appears to be Latin nidus, by way of a verb form like nidificare ‘to make a nest,’ a form that underwent internal elision and reduction in the Romance languages and dwindled into verb forms like nichier, *nicare or *nichiar.

 

Pilonidal Cyst

This is a medical adjective denoting a cyst full of hair or thickened secretions usually found at the top of the sulcus of a person’s buttocks. When chronic inflammation occurs, pilonidal cysts are quite painful.

“During the Second World War, Allied troops were invalided out with Jeep Driver's Bottom—otherwise known as a pilonidal sinus, a painful abscess that forms in the cleft between the upper buttocks.” The World War Two American army slang was peppier. Yanks termed the malady Screamin’ Jeep Ass.

Under glass, that is, microscopically these cysts resemble little bird's nests filled with hair. They occur most frequently at the midline of the back just above the tailbone, aka ass bone. To the naked eye, a simple pilonidal cyst may look like a hairy dimple. This hair in an enclosing structure is also seen in pilonidal sinus, often in the armpit or navel, where a hair has lodged in a fold of skin.

 Pilonidal < classical Latin pilus ‘hair’ + Latin nidus ‘nest’

Cyst < medieval Latin cistis > Greek κύστις kystis ‘sac, bladder’

In medicine, a pathological cyst is an abnormal sac or pouch, with a wall lined with epithelial cells, and usually distended by liquid or semi-solid material.

 

Other Tailbone Afflictions:

Rider’s Butt

This Alberta ranch phrase, also called rider’s bum, is coccygeal tendonitis. Your coccyx (common pronunciation: COCK-sicks) is your tailbone, your ass bone, the last little triangular wedge of a vertebra at the end of your spinal column, a tiny bone formed from four or five even smaller rudimentary vertebrae.

The tailbone can get bumped and bruised riding a horse or sitting for too long during a motorboat ride, hence one of its other everyday names: motorboat bum.

Etymology of the Coccyx Bone

In languages all over the world, including English and Greek, humans name some animals by their characteristic sounds. In English, coot is such a bird name, imitating that bird’s cry as heard by an early speaker of the language. In Old English cu was the echoic word for cow. It’s reasonably certain that cu (coo) was an early Teutonic version of moo! To the ancient Greeks the sound made by the cuckoo bird was kokkuks! Not too far from the English word cuckoo. The Greek word naming that bird for its characteristic call found its way into Latin as coccyx and the Latin word was adopted into English medical terminology. Early Roman anatomists thought the little tailbone at the end of the human spine looked like a cuckoo’s bill, a teeny triangle. That’s how the tailbone received its medical name, coccyx.

For more info, read my column: Rider’s Butt & Other Horse Terms by clicking the link.

http://www.billcasselman.com/unpublished_works/horsewords_coccyx.htm

 

It’s a Pheasant, Peasant!

One of the nouns of assembly for the pheasant is a nye. One Brit acquainted with the proper language of field sports has written: “To speak of a flock of pheasants is a grievous sin against culture—it is a nye of pheasants.” Nye squawked early in English, having arrived in M.O.E. (Merry Old England) with the Norman Conquest of 1066 CE. It began as Anglo-Norman ny ‘a brood of pheasants,’ twin to the Middle French ni, both truncated forms of French nid ‘nest,’ itself descended from Latin nidus.

Nide

A nide is the nest of a goose, from the same Latin word nidus. Historically it was sparingly used as a synonym for nye.

 Eyas

This is the trickiest derivative of nidus to spot because it is an error-altered form of nyas, now obsolete. A nyas was a young hawk taken from the nest to train. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1616 CE), Act 2, Scene 2, line 340 “An ayrie of Children, little Yases (eyas), that crye out on the top of question.” Yases are eyas ‘nestlings.’

The difficulty with where exactly the letter /n/ fits happened to several other words in older English. For example, the adder snake, the common viper of Europe, began as a naddre, but people hearing the phrase for the first time thought it ought to be an adder. Yet its cognate in Old High German is natara ‘water snake’ and Old Norse nathr ‘viper.’

The word with /n/ correctly used as the first letter of the word entered England as an Anglo-Norman technical term in falconry, a young bird removed from the nest to train. It had forms like niais, niés, nieys, nioys, all descended from Latin nidus ‘nest.’ When English speakers unused to French first said phrases like an niais, they were corrected by ignoramuses who stated that it ought to be an *iais or an eyas. What a nest of ninnies!

Nidifugous

This technical adjective in ornithology is said of a young bird born ready to leave its nest quickly. Nidifugous = nidus ‘nest’ + Latin noun fuga ‘flight, escape, retreat.

Rupert was an enterprising youth and early proved nidifugous, driving at the age of ten his father’s Bentley all the way to Windsor for lunch.

 

The Silly Nidus Words

Nidulate

I have left my preferred silly nidus words to the end. To nidulate is to build a nest. It is rare and obsolete and has, of course, a Latin diminituive form as its root, nidulus ‘little nest.’ Alberta-bound youth: “I shall go west, marry a good woman and nidulate in the Rockies.”

Nidifice

Another word, rare to the point of silliness, is among my choicest verbal gems. It is a word for a bird’s nest, nidifice, formed on the analogy of edifice. It belongs in all bad bird poems. For example, here’s a wee confection I just whipped up out behind the barn:

O Thrush, I rush ahush to thy dear nidifice

To see you slew your father, You Oedipus!

 

Nidifice descends from the Latin verb nidificare ‘to build a nest.’

Nidificate

And that brings us to nidificate. And thereby hangs a modest personal tale. When I was young, I studied Quebec fiction briefly. On the course was a wonderful second novel by the Quebec writer Gabrielle Roy with the melodious, mellifuous title La Petite poule d'eau (1950), one of Canada’s best pastoral stories set in an idyllic Northern Manitoba where the author had been for one summer a school mistress. When Roy’s sweet novel was translated into English, it received the stupid, ugly, clunker title of Where Nests the Water Hen. An atrocity of clumsy English with its pompous verb out of place in primary position, that title bore no relationship to the tone and content of the novel. So those of us who possessed an ear decided we would try to compete with the English-deaf nincompoop who had supplied that title. Could we humble students out-awkward such a shoddy titleist? My contribution was Where Nidificates The Sooty Coot. I still like it, as parody and comeuppance.

 

Copyright 2012 © William Gordon Casselman

 

 

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Read A Previous New Column:

Wind-Rose

& Advection

 

Click here.

 

 

 

 

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October 23, 2011

New review on Amazon.com of my book

Canadian Words and Sayings (paperback)

by WB Johnston

“True patriotism is rare. It’s not about flag-waving always - although a wee bit of flag-waving is fine! Casselman loves his country, his fellow Canadians, and words. Hard to say which he loves more. Fortunately we don’t have to choose.

This book is a labour (let’s spell it the Canadian way, eh?) of love. It is also a work of art. With careful scrutiny of language sources, it honours every single ethnic tradition from First Peoples to the most recent of immigrants in the rich melting pot of Canadian words and sayings. There are moments of insight and, the humour is rich.

I put this on my bookshelf next to Barry Lopez’ Common Ground.

As an American who fell in love with Alberta over forty years ago, this is finer with my breakfast than a dead Tim*!

Kudos, Mr. Casselman, you did us all proud.”

 

* (Casselman note) A dead Tim is a cup of coffee bought at a chain of Canadian coffee shops called Tim Horton’s, named after a deceased famous Canadian NHL hockey player. I heard the slang phrase on the campus of the University of Manitoba one chilly Winnipeg day.

This book is available online at Chapters/Indigo and Amazon. There are fine used copies for the low, low price of .01¢ ! Yikes! New copies are under 10 dollars. The author's royalty on copies costing one cent is minimal. Please remember that.

 

 

 

 

Reviews of my New Book

Click bookcover for preview

Jenni French of San Fancisco, California writes on her blog "My Corner of the Universe" for March 19, 2011:

Casselman, Bill. Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A World Lover's Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010.


"I admit it: I'm a word nerd. I love words: weird words, long words, obscure words, funny words.  This book is right up my alley.  With chapters like "Nautical Words," "Creepy Words," and "Edible Words," I have enjoyed every page of this book. 

And the author has quite a way with words, so I have found myself rereading many sentences in this book and slowing my progress through it. 

My current favorite sentence is found in a discussion of dog hybrid breed names: "What a revolting concatenation of cutesiness and smarmy nomenclatorial treacle parading under the name of canine hybrid breed names" (19).

I'm sure I'll have another favorite sentence in a day or two. 

This book is just that good and just that entertaining."

 

Author Bill Casselman replies: "Thanks, Jenni!"

Just a reminder that this book contains my ALL-NEW word esssays, none of which are available anywhere else in print or online.

----------------------------------------

A Great New Review of My Latest Book!

 

October 26, 2011

Welcome to the Enchanted Forest

By WB Johnston

This review is about Bill Casselman’s latest e-book about words: Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A Word Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems (Kindle Edition)

 

“Wade Davis, lately of National Geographic, once described each living language as “an old-growth forest of the human spirit.” Once you decide to enter the kleptomaniacal woods of our mother tongue, what you need is more than a tour guide. This is no Disney-fied ‘keep-your-hands-inside-the-car-at all-times’, point A to point B, clear-cutting mining of language. You, here, are in the hands of Sir William of Cassel, a genuine shaman modestly posing as a simple lover of words.

In the best of the spiritual tradition, Bill is the shape-shifter who constantly leads you to all the places you need to find in your soul. Every page is a new country, an invitation to an excursion into the wonderland of rich connections with the myriad of sources of what so often we unthinkingly wield as a prosaic tool.

Pay absolutely no attention to anyone who tells you that this book is anything but pure gold. It’s simply not true, sadly, that all the world loves a lover. Particularly someone whose love is so boundless.

But Sir William is fearless. You don’t earn your keep as a medicine man if you have a thin skin. While I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could walk away from this book unmoved by its wit, its wisdom and the beautiful transparency by which the author celebrates the glorious romp of our almost unlimited linguistic exuberance, I have to sadly conclude that once in a while, you do meet someone who can’t see the forest for the trees, eh?

Read this book. Leave it on the sofa instead of the $%#!*$% TV remote. Maybe someone you care about will pick it up, even just for a moment, and fall in love with their heritage?

Leave it on your desk at work and trust that someone will riffle through it when you are out at lunch. Shamans are magicians of the highest order. The work of their hands and hearts is game-changing. Or, hey, put it on your Kindle and just feel comforted that you can wander back out into the forest with Bill even in the middle of a boring lecture.

Enjoy.”

 

Casselman replies: Thank you so much, Dr. J., for the kudos.

-------------------------------------------

Cindy Lapeña on her blog "Creativity Unlimited" of July 19 ,2011, writes:

Posted by mimrlith in 365 Things to Look Forward to.
Tags: 365 things to look forward to, books, reading
trackback

19. Starting a book

To a certified bibliophile like me, a.k.a. bookworm, one of the most exciting things to look forward to is to start reading a new book. In fact, sometimes the prospect of starting to read a new book is so exciting that I have to hurry to finish the book I am currently reading, just so I can start a new one.

If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a book, especially if it promises to be a good one. Of course there are certain books I just won’t touch or be seen with, but at the risk of being hung by my thumbs by fans of such literature, I will not mention any genres in particular. . .

Seeing a book with a title that totally captivates me, like Where a Dobdob meets a Dikdik (yes, that is a book title!) has me so worked up, I just can’t wait to dive in. I imagine all sorts of deliciously fancifully outrageous words with a title like that. Is it obvious? I just love books on words. You won’t believe how many dictionaries I own. Or books on lexical oddities and other lexical explorations. Yes, I am a logophile of sorts. I love the new words I pick up from new books. I relish finding out the meanings of all manner of words and phrases and expressions. What could be more fun?"

(Replies author Bill Casselman: Please scroll to bottom of page or click here to link to a free seven-page preview of my new book, Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik.

--------------------------------------------------

 

 

Sample My Newest Book. Click Below.

Jan. 3, 2011

“Mr Casselman,
I wanted to write to thank you for your thoroughly enjoyable [new] book. By background, I am a technologist practicing the somewhat arcane crafts of Information Security.”  

David Gamey, Canada

 

Testimonial Email

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Dear Mr. Casselman,
A search for the origins of an improbable-looking word, paraprosdokian, led me to the first piece of your prose I have had the pleasure of reading, "The Bogus Word Paraprosdokian & Lazy Con Artists of Academe." I have just placed an order for Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik, Canadian Words & Sayings, and As The Canoe Tips, and will add more of your titles as I finish these.

I have just retired from a 40-plus year career in book publishing, the last thirty years spent as director/editor of a number of university presses, attempting to sort the genuine writers from the "Lazy Con Artists of Academe." Sad to say, the latter have so over-bred the former that I could no longer see the rare gem in the avalanches of offal that daily swamped my office and desk. I visited your website and spent far too long there; it was a pleasure to meet a real writer through his work.

. . . I revisited the paraprosdokian page, and have finally quit laughing again at “Casselman's Conclusion.” You were not unkind to the "profligate prof-lets." During my years as an acquisitions editor, in rejection letters I often quoted Prof. Moses Hadas, classicist at Columbia University, who wrote a young scholar in response to having been sent the prof-let's first book, "Thank you for sending me your book. I will waste no time reading it."

I know I will enjoy your books. Keep up the good work.

Thank you,
Luther Wilson
Director (Retired)
University of New Mexico Press, among others

 

Click to read my paraprosdokian column.

 

 

Nov. 15, 2010: On Twitter, Doug O'Neill, a happy buyer of my new Dobdob book, writes, "Even funnier flipping through it a second time around."

Thanks, Doug!

 

 

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Quebec French Sayings -1

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For readers interested in French, there is a great deal of material on my website about Quebec French. Just click below to begin.

 

 

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Description of Site Contents

Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day™ & Words of the World features thousands of entries about Canadian phrases, words, expressions, and folk sayings. Canadian French expressions, idioms and folk sayings are featured and explained in English. The latest, newest French Canadian slang is deciphered. Québécois joual phrases and jokes are explained in English. My newest, latest, unpublished word stories and studies appear here on this website. Canadian English is the focus but English spoken and written all over the world and throughout the history of the language interests me as well. Words of the World spotlights non-Canadian English words and their origins from languages all over the world and permits me to venture on etymological journeys well beyond the pleasant confines of my native Canada.

 

Other Places to Visit on My Website

Casselman's Canadian Words / Casselmania

Canadian Garden Words /Canadian Food Words

What's In a Canadian Name? / Canadian Sayings

Canadian Sayings 2 / Canadian Sayings 3

A Dictionary of Medical Derivations

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As The Canoe Tips: Comic Scenes from Canadian Life

Canadian Words & Sayings 2006 edition

 

 

According to one web server log file analysis program,Webalizer, throughout 2011, so far, this website receives more than 138,000 hits per day. For Google Analytics numbers, see the top of this index page.

 

 

 

Copyright © 1996 -2012 William Gordon Casselman

 

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