nugget

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

nugget

1852, "lump of gold," probably from southwestern England dialectal nug "lump," of unknown origin. Another theory is that it is a misdivision of an ingot. Transf. sense is from 1859.

Example sentences

To find the nugget of what a particular ethic was, without getting too broad

and putting things together was a challenge.

If someone had handed him a gold nugget he'd have glanced and tossed.

Kim says the belly flap's peritoneal membrane makes the appearance of the

nugget meat less desirable to consumers.

But there was an interesting nugget that hasn't been widely discussed.

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Matching Quote

"Man is not merely the sum of his masks. Behind the shifting face of personality is a hard nugget of self, a genetic gift.... The self is malleable but elastic, snapping back to its original shape like a rubber band. Mental illness is no myth, as some have claimed. It is a disturbance in our sense of possession of a stable inner self that survives its personae."

-Camille Paglia