nidus

American  

[nahy-duhs] / ˈnaɪ dəs /

noun

plural

nidi

1. a nest, especially one in which insects, spiders, etc., deposit their eggs.

2. a place or point in an organism where a germ or other organism can develop or breed.

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nidus British  

/ ˈnaɪdəs /

noun

1. the nest in which insects or spiders deposit their eggs

2. pathol a focus of infection

3. a cavity in which plant spores develop

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Other Word Forms

• nidal adjective

Etymology

Origin of nidus

1735–45; < Latin nīdus nest

Example Sentences

Among them, occasionally, an underlying structural abnormality in the brain can be the nidus for electrical disarray.

From New York Times • Sep. 25, 2019

The S.D.P., however, had the advantage of being able to coalesce around the nidus of a small, old, still breathing third party, the Liberals.

From Time Magazine Archive

The words used to designate such fittings are: nidus; forulus, or more usually foruli; loculamenta; pluteus; pegmata.

From The Care of Books by Clark, John Willis

It will not be difficult to induce me to give up the theory of the growth of shells, without their being the nidus of animals.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 by Randolph, Thomas Jefferson

On reaching France Astolpho bound the madman, then, holding the urn to his nose, the wits returned to their nidus, and the hero was himself again.

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham