• nestle •
Pronunciation: nes-êl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: 1. To totally relax in a snug, cozy place, as in a nest. 2. To snuggle up contentedly.
Notes: Here is an authentic English word, as usual with one derivation, the personal noun, nestler, and the present participle, nestling, serving as adjective and action noun.
In Play: The first sense of this verb is often used with down: "Drowsy with happiness, we nestled down in our sleeping bags for a peaceful night's sleep." The second sense we often find with up: "Kathy loved watching videos with her cat nestled up to her."
Word History: Today's Good Word started out its life as Old English nestlian "to build or live in a nest", comprising nest + -le, diminutive suffix, which also was interpreted as a affectionate suffix. Nest has several identical cousins around the Germanic languages: German Nest, Dutch nest, and Swedish näste. Their PIE ancestor was probably nizdo "nest", originally a compound noun made up of ni "down" + sed-/sod- "to sit", remnants of which we see in Sanskrit niddah, Latin nidus, Irish and Scots Gaelic nead, Welsh nyth, Russian gnezdo, Polish gniazdo, Czech hnízdo, and Ukrainian gnizdo—all meaning "nest". (Now a grateful nod to Barbara Beeton, a highly active Agoran, who regularly recommends outstanding Good Words like today's.)
