Dictionary form of verb not nominalized before の+Noun。: 「羽で包んで保護するの義。」

Question

My question is about the following sentence, found in a 語源辞典 dictionary from 新明解 about the 育む verb.

「はぐくむ」は「[羽]{は}[包]{くく}む」であって、羽で包んで保護するの義。

I had never seen constructs where the dictionary form of a verb is directly followed by の+Noun。. My guess is that の義。 it is just short for と言う義。 If so, one should see it as 「羽で包んで保護する」の義。 Is that correct, or am I missing something?

Answer 1

It is a typical pattern for dictionary definitions.

It omits である at the end, so Xの義＝Xの義である＝Means X. Or even more literally Xの義＝The sense of X. So in this case, the sense of protecting by wrapping by feathers.

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I think Xの意 is more usual.