No, I haven't muddled up Caesar's famous statement, but this word and its derivation plays an very important role in this exposé. It's said, "a picture's worth a thousand words". Perhaps then, it'd be logical to also say that in some instances a word may be worth a thousand pictures.
In one of our chats, in February, Doug asked me if I knew what the term "nidic" meant. He claimed the word appeared in a business plan he was reviewing. I questioned the spelling as the word appeared in the chat window. "Are you sure it's nidic, and not Nidec?" I wote, querying the context in which the word had been used. "No, it's nidic" he replied, implying that the plan had indicated it referred to business protocol in cottage industries.
Not being readily familiar with the word, but having studied enough latin in my British schooling to know the root and having honed my "Octopussy" skills by this point in our relationship, while continuing the conversation in one chat screen, I quickly "googled" in another window to find it was an adjectival derived from,
nidus \Ni"dus\, n.; pl. nidi. ni·dus·es or ni·di (-d )[L. See Nidi, Nest.]
1. A nest or a repository for the eggs of birds, insects, etc.
2. A cavity where spores develop.
3. Pathology ~ A central point or focus of bacterial growth in a living organism; a breeding place.
4. A point or place at which something originates, accumulates, or develops, as the center around which salts of calcium, uric acid, or bile acid form calculi; the place or substance where parasites or the germs of a disease effect lodgment or are developed.
nidus \Ni"dus\, n.; pl. nidi. ni·dus·es or ni·di (-d )[L. See Nidi, Nest.]
1. A nest or a repository for the eggs of birds, insects, etc.
2. A cavity where spores develop.
3. Pathology ~ A central point or focus of bacterial growth in a living organism; a breeding place.
4. A point or place at which something originates, accumulates, or develops, as the center around which salts of calcium, uric acid, or bile acid form calculi; the place or substance where parasites or the germs of a disease effect lodgment or are developed.
A term for a bird that remains in the nest after hatching until grown or nearly grown is nidicolous (often seen misspelled with a "u" rather than the "o") from the Latin nidus (nest) + cola (inhabitant). The antonym term is "nidifugous", from the Latin nidus (nest) + fugere (to flee).
In a business context, it seemed odd that the word nidic, with a distinctly biological theme, would appear! More specifically, it's a word that would be common in the vocabulary of either a microbiologist or an ornithologist, in fact. I would later learn, in October 2004, that this small word, nidic, its meaning and the reason it was used in text Doug was reviewing, would prove to be a very crucial key in the second episode in my life.
"like the clue in the labyrinth, or the compass in the night" ~ J. Joubert
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