  The pseudogap regime of high-temperature cuprates harbours diverse
manifestations of electronic ordering whose exact nature and universality
remain debated. Here, we show that the short-ranged charge order recently
reported in the normal state of YBa2Cu3Oy corresponds to a truly static
modulation of the charge density. We also show that this modulation impacts on
most electronic properties, that it appears jointly with intra-unit-cell
nematic, but not magnetic, order, and that it exhibits differences with the
charge density wave observed at lower temperatures in high magnetic fields.
These observations prove mostly universal, they place new constraints on the
origin of the charge density wave and they reveal that the charge modulation is
pinned by native defects. Similarities with results in layered metals such as
NbSe2, in which defects nucleate halos of incipient charge density wave at
temperatures above the ordering transition, raise the possibility that
order-parameter fluctuations, but no static order, would be observed in the
normal state of most cuprates if disorder were absent.
