alcove

See also: alcôve

English

Etymology

From French alcôve, from Spanish alcoba or Portuguese alcova, from Arabic القُبَّة (al-qubba, “vault, chamber with vaulted roof”). Doublet of qubba.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæl.kəʊv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

alcove (plural alcoves)

1. (architecture) A small recessed area set off from a larger room.
   • 1919, Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 4:

     It was very different from such bookstores as he had been accustomed to patronize. Two stories of the old house had been thrown into one: the lower space was divided into little alcoves; above, a gallery ran round the wall, which carried books to the ceiling.

2. A shady retreat.

   The house was situated in a leafy alcove.

3. (countable) The geographical and geological term for a steep-sided hollow in the side of an exposed rock face or cliff of a homogeneous rock type, that was water eroded.

Derived terms

• alcoved

 

Translations

small recessed area

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: խորշ (hy) (xorš), անկողնախորշ (hy) (ankoġnaxorš)
• Bulgarian: ни́ша f (níša)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 壁龕／壁龛 (zh) (bìkān)

• Czech: výklenek (cs) m, alkovna (cs) f
• Danish: alkove c, niche c
• Dutch: alkoof (nl) f or m
• Esperanto: alkovo
• Faroese: kovi m
• Finnish: alkovi (fi)
• French: alcôve (fr) f
• Galician: alcoba f
• German: Alkoven (de) m; Alkov m (dated), Alkove m or f (dated)
• Greek: κόγχη (el) f (kónchi)
• Hebrew: גֻּמְחָה (he) f
• Hungarian: hálófülke (hu), alkóv (hu), falmélyedés (hu)
• Ido: alkovo (io)
• Italian: alcova (it) f, talamo (it) m, camera da letto f
• Japanese: 壁龕 (ja) (へきがん, hekigan)
• Korean: 반침 (ko) (banchim)
• Macedonian: ни́ша f (níša)
• Polish: nisza (pl) f, wnęka (pl) f, (frequent when used as a sleeping space) alkowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: alcova (pt) f
• Russian: ни́ша (ru) f (níša), алько́в (ru) m (alʹkóv)
• Scottish Gaelic: pùball m
• Serbo-Croatian: алков m (alkov), ниша f (niša)
• Spanish: hornacina (es) f, hueco (es) m, nicho (es) m
• Swedish: alkov (sv)
• Ukrainian: алько́в (uk) m (alʹkóv), ні́ша f (níša)

Anagrams

• coeval, coëval

Italian

Noun

alcove f

1. plural of alcova

Anagrams

• celavo, vocale