Nestle

[Dr. Goodword]

• 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.)

[Slava]

Nestling can also refer to a bird not yet ready to take flight. Or, more cutely, to a child. Hence empty-nesters.

[MTC]

A word in the same cozy nest (ahem) as nestle is the German loan
word “gemutlichkeit” which Dr. Goodword may already have covered. Interesting aside, the corporation, Nestles, is named after its founder whose name means “nest” in German, and whose family coat of arms depicting a bird in a nest was transformed into the company’s logo. Chicks were added, I gather to convey a warm family feeling, especially apt for a company that manufactures hot chocolate. And we’re back to gemutlichkeit… cozy, cozy, cozy.

[Slava]

Gemutlichkeit has come up, and Gemutlich has actually made two trips to the Good Doctor's office, in 2007 and again in 2013.