Nuggets

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Small, rounded pieces of something, often referring to morsels of food
2. Descriptive of small, compact groups or clusters, like metal or gold finds
3. A term sometimes used to denote valuable bits or insights of information or knowledge

Etymology: "Nuggets" is the plural of "nugget", and the singular has a murky past. Its earliest recorded uses describe animals and people in Scotland, not gold: a "nugget" was a short, sturdy person or beast. Scholars have proposed a few possible sources, including the southern English dialect word "nug", meaning a lump or block, combined with a diminutive ending, or Scottish "knudge" or "nudge", with the same sense of something small and thickset. Only later did the word turn to mineral lumps. In Australia it came to describe chunks of ore, and gold nuggets from the goldfields became its best-known sense. A further suggestion is that it arose from a misdivision of "ingot", reanalysed as "ni(n)got", though this explanation is less firmly supported than the others. The food sense, the small rounded piece of chicken or similar, is a modern extension of the idea of a compact lump. A short, rounded morsel is the common thread running from Scottish livestock through Australian gold to the fried chicken on a child's plate.

Synonyms: chunks, pieces, bits