Nidus
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by DouglasA (talk | contribs) at 21:05, February 11, 2010. It may differ significantly from current revision.
A nidus (NEYE-dus) is a place or core for the development of something in nature. For example, the nidus of a pearl is the original core from which the pearl develops.
Nidus is often used as a figure of speech to refer to the essential core of something.
In psychiatry, a hallucination lacks a nidus in reality, but a delusion has one.