Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A difficult situation or problem; a complication.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A knot.
  • In music, an enigmatical canon.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin nōdus, knot; see ned- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • When the dignus vindice nodus is resurrected in the 1790s in relation to the use of the supernatural, Horace's words should be translated to mean "you should not use this device unless you have a legitimate reason."

    Haunted Britain in the 1970s 2005

  • Even her hairstyle was on message: a meticulously combed arrangement known as the nodus literally, “knot”, in reference to the distinctive roll of hair swept up harshly above the forehead.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • So wisely I shut my letter, (after unwisely having driven everything to the last moment!) -- and now I have silk to tie fast with ... to tie a 'nodus' ... 'dignus' of the celestial interposition -- and a new packet shall be ready to go to you directly.

    The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 Robert Browning 1850

  • The former is steady and unshaken, where the 'nodus' is 'dignus vindice'; the latter is oftener improperly than properly exerted, but always brutally.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Earl of Chesterfield Works Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield 1733

  • The former is steady and unshaken, where the 'nodus' is 'dignus vindice'; the latter is oftener improperly than properly exerted, but always brutally.

    Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1749 Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield 1733

  • So wisely I shut my letter, (after unwisely having driven everything to the last moment!) ” and now I have silk to tie fast with ... to tie a 'nodus' ... 'dignus' of the celestial interposition ” and a new packet shall be ready to go to you directly.

    The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Browning, Robert, 1812-1889 1898

  • Gone was the prim nodus; instead her long hair was parted in the center and allowed to fall loose under a veil, in a deliberate echo of the statuary poses of classical goddesses.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • In spite of the fact that she was over seventy when Tiberius became emperor, in dedicated artwork she got progressively younger.22 Slowly but surely the round-faced visage of her earlier public portraits underwent a facelift, the severe nodus hairstyle with its bulky pompadour gradually replaced with a softer, more graceful center part, her wrinkles filled in, her skin made smoother, her expression calmer and more serene.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • Augustus himself owed much of his rise to his adoption as a seventeen-year-old by his great-uncle Julius Caesar.62 In 13 BC, once Gaius and Lucius had reached the age of seven and four, respectively, the Roman mint issued a coin featuring the emperor on one side, and on the other a tiny fleshy-featured bust of Julia, her hair neatly arranged in the nodus, flanked by the heads of her two infant boys.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • Portraits of Julia as she came of age showed her with her hair twisted into the same stiff, controlled nodus favored by her stepmother and aunt, under whose aegis she was now being brought up.22

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

Comments

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  • plural: nodi

    November 15, 2007

  • Nodus also means a node in pathology and medicine (definition 1, Oxford English Dictionary) and Anatomy (Terminologia Anatomica — International Anatomical Terminology 1998: 195-197).

    June 28, 2011