Comment # 7 on bug 1140295 from Matej Cepl

(In reply to Dr. Werner Fink from comment #6)
> Use
> 
>   TERM=gnome
> 
> or
> 
>   TERM=gnome-256color
> 
> note that the TERM variable does never program a terminal nor terminal
> emulator but only describes it.

Cannot reproduce with any TERM value you suggested (gnome, gnome-256color,
xterm, xterm-256color; note, I have never seen the first in the real life, both
gnome-terminal and xterm default to xterm-256color for me) and with both
gnome-terminal and xterm, nvim -d just works as expected (both with running my
~/.vim/vimrc as well as with -u NONE).

There just have to be something wrong with your environment.

Closing as WORKSFORME, but I am very much willing to be persuaded when you
reopen with the additional information.