1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nest

NEST, the place where a bird lays its eggs, hatches them out, and shelters them until they are fledged. The word is used by analogy of other animals than birds, insects, &c. It appears in much the same form in Teutonic languages; related to it are Irish nead, and Lat. nidus, whence Fr. nid. It has been referred to the Gr. νόστος, return home, but it is now established that it represents a form nizdo- for nisido-, from ni-, down; cf. “nether,” and sed-, to sit. Sanskrit has nīda. The Lat. nidus has given the scientific term for nest-building, nidification (q.v.).