This week’s theme
Words made with combining forms

This week’s words
hippology
hypogeal
xerophilic
steganography
nidicolous

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(ny-DIK-uh-luhs)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Remaining with the parents for a long time after birth.
2. Living in the home of another species.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin nidi- (nest) + -colous (inhabiting). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sed- (to sit), which is also the source of nest, sit, chair, saddle, assess, sediment, soot, cathedral, and tetrahedron. Earliest documented use: 1902.

NOTES:

Etymologically speaking, the word nidicolous refers to birds that stay in the nest due to their dependence on the parents for food and protection. But there’s no reason you couldn’t apply it to other species. The opposite is nidifugous (literally, fleeing the nest), leaving soon after birth.

USAGE:

“Two adults and two chicks ... they seemed to Shasta to be getting along fine enough, their nidicolous coexistence.”
William Penn; Love in the Time of Flowers; Trafford Publishing; 2009.

See more usage examples of nidicolous in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: