Nidus

The Latin word for "nest", nidus is used in medicine to refer to any structure that resembles a nest in appearance or function. Just as a nest is a repository for the eggs of birds, insects and other animals, a nidus is a breeding place where bacteria, parasites and other agents of a disease lodge and develop. This is a nidus of infection, a focus of infection. A nidus is also the nucleus or origin of a nerve. The nidus avis cerebelli is a deep sulcus (groove) on each side of the inferior vermis (a wormlike structure in the brain), separating it from the adjacent lobes of the cerebral hemispheres.

* * *

1. A nest. 2. The nucleus or central point of origin of a nerve. 3. A focus of infection. 4. The nucleus of a crystal; the coalescence of molecules or small particles that is the beginning of a crystal or similar solid deposit. 5. The focus of reduced density at the center of an osteoid osteoma, on bone radiographs. [L. nest]

- n. avis a deep depression on each side of the inferior surface of the cerebellum, between the uvula and the biventral lobe, in which the tonsil rests. SYN: n. hirundinis. [L. bird's nest]

- n. hirundinis SYN: n. avis. [L. swallow's nest]

* * *

ni·dus 'nī-dəs n, pl ni·di -.dī or ni·dus·es

1) a place or substance in tissue where the germs of a disease or other organisms lodge and multiply

2) a place where something originates or is fostered or develops <hysterical symptoms often grow from an organic \nidus, congenital or acquired (D. N. Parfitt)>

* * *

n.

a place in which bacteria have settled and multiplied because of particularly suitable conditions: a focus of infection.

* * *

ni·dus (niґdəs) pl. niґdi [L. “nest”] 1. the point of origin or focus of a morbid process. 2. nucleus (def. 2).