| 释义 |
▪ I. niche, n.|nɪtʃ, niːʃ|
Forms: 7 nice, niece, neech, 7–8 nitch, 7– nich(e.
[a. F. niche, ad. It. nicchia, of doubtful origin (by Diez connected with nicchio mussel-shell). The Fr. form is also the source of Sp. and Pg. nicho, G. and Da. nische, Sw. nisch, Du. nis, Russ. nish.]
1. a. A shallow ornamental recess or hollow formed in a wall of a building, usually for the purpose of containing a statue or other decorative object.
1611Cotgr., Niche, a Niche; a hollow seat, or standing for a statue, or image, made into a wall. a1612B. Jonson Pr. Henries Barriers Wks. (1616) 966 There Porticos were built,..The nieces filld with statues. 1624Wotton Archit. in Reliq. (1651) 292 That the Nices if they contain Figures of white Stone or Marble, be not coloured in their Concavity too black. 1670–98R. Lassels Voy. Italy I. Pref., Who can speak of Statues, but he must speak of Niches? 1713Steele Englishm. No. 40. 259 You have the blessed Virgin and a Child sitting in a Nitch. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 310 The niches still remaining shew, that this temple formerly contained the statues of the gods. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk. II. 184 Just over the grave, in a niche of the wall, is a bust of Shakespeare. 1838Lytton Leila i. v, Taking up a brazen lamp that burnt in a niche. 1874J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 3 A tall niche in the wall, holding a processional cross.
b. A recess in the face of a dial. rare—1.
1822J. Imison Sci. & Art I. 96 The small hand B, in the nich at top goes round once in a minute.
2. a. A small vaulted recess or chamber made in the thickness of a wall, or in the ground.
1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 184 A certain number of Neeches Vaulted, in which there were rich beds. 1695Motteux tr. St. Olon's Morocco 20 Some Wicker Conveniencies cover'd with Linnen-Cloth, and contriv'd like Niches or Arches. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. iii. xxxiii. 152 Beds were taken out of nitches made in the wall for that purpose. 1822Byron Werner iii. i, It leads through winding walls..And hollow cells, and obscure niches, to I know not whither. 1879S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xx. 440 A third chamber had three connecting vaults, each with three raised niches for the dead.
b. A natural recess in a rock or hill.
1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. vi. 54 We were fortunate enough to get out a whale-line to the rocks and warp into a protecting niche. 1865W. G. Palgrave Arabia I. 153 We scramble up to a sort of niche near its summit.
c. = mihrab 2. In full, prayer niche.
1911, etc. [see mihrab 2]. 1962C. W. Jacobsen Oriental Rugs 251 The prayer niche is typical and each is in this shape unless, by chance, it is one that has three prayer niches.
3. fig.
a. A place or position adapted to the character or capabilities, or suited to the merits, of a person or thing.
1726Swift To a Lady Wks. 1751 XIV. 227 If I can but fill my Nitch, I attempt no higher Pitch. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Mallet Wks. 1787 IV. 282 In the series of great men..he should find a nich for the hero of the theatre. 1815Chalmers in Hanna Mem. (1849) I. 21 They have a niche assigned them in almost every public doing. 1869W. M. Rossetti in Q. Eliz. Acad., etc. ii. 49 The work fills a niche of its own and is without competitor.
b. A place of retreat or retirement.
1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Spiders, The way to destroy the Niches of Spiders in our Gardens. 1750Phil. Trans. XLVII. 108 When the animal returns into its nich, the proboscis sinks into itself. 1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. vi. iii. §3. 12 Where the leaf-stalk forms a safe niche between it and the main stem. 1863Woolner My beautiful Lady 20, I told of gourmand thrushes, which To feast on morsels oozy rich, Cracked poor snails' curling niche.
c. Ecol. The position of a plant or animal within its community.
1927C. Elton Anim. Ecology v. 63 It is therefore convenient to have some term to describe the status of an animal in its community, to indicate what it is doing and not merely what it looks like, and the term used is ‘niche’. Ibid. 64 The ‘niche’ of an animal means its place in the biotic environment, its relations to food and enemies. 1937[see biotope]. 1960N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. xiv. 431 The large lianes comprise..by far the more numerous synusiae (groups of plants of similar life-form, each filling much the same ecological niche and playing a similar role). 1962Listener 13 Sept. 388/2 Divergence is related to the existence of ecological niches. Ibid., On the existence of niches, he [sc. Darwin] was already clear in 1837... Even more apposite is his question on how a niche is entered. 1965B. E. Freeman tr. Vandel's Biospeleology i. 6 A number of terrestrial planarians are endogeans, occupying a similar niche to the earthworms. 1974Bennett & Humphries Introd. Field Biol. (ed. 2) ii. 8 Each animal species has its own typical food relationships with other species, so in a given community at a given time each is said to have its characteristic food niche. Ibid. 12 Its habitat niche can be thought of as the sum total of its many effective environments throughout life. Ibid. 13 The term ‘niche’ on its own is much misused in ecological writing to mean food-niche, habitat-niche, habitat or microhabitat.
4. attrib. and Comb., as niche-band, niche-ornament, niche work; niche-like adj.
1841Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. IV. 412/2 The centre [opening]..forms a lofty arch to the niche-like loggia. 1848Rickman Styles Archit. Eng. 228 The buttresses..are ornamented with various tiers of niche-work. 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. I. xxiv. §10 This niche ornament of the north. 1867A. Barry Sir C. Barry vii. 254 The top of the niche-band ranged with the cornice of the building. 1878Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 110 A fissure, or a niche-like depression of the edge of the disc.
Add:[3.] d. Comm. A position from which an entrepreneur seeks to exploit a gap or opening in an economy, market, etc.; hence, a specialized but highly profitable corner of a commercial market. orig. U.S.
1963F. Barth Role of Entrepreneur 9 The point at which an entrepreneur seeks to exploit the environment may be described as his niche: the position which he occupies in relation to resources, competitors and clients. 1972Network Anal. Stud. Human Interaction 155 It was chiefly through violence and cunning..that the successful peasant entrepreneur could hope to exploit his niche. 1982Peters & Waterman In Search of Excellence vi. 182 Customer orientation is..a way of finding a particular niche where you are better at something than anybody else. 1986Marketing Week 29 Aug. 19/4 Even Boots..is beginning to look for a new market niche and is testing concepts such as convenience-type foods and dairy products.
[4.] b. (In sense 3 d), niche advertising, niche business, niche market(ing), niche player.
1979Business Week 21 May 126 f/3 My guess is that they'll use it to buy into another smallish, niche market. 1986Times 30 Jan. 17/2 Union would be able to find and occupy niche businesses in the securities industry. 1986Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) 17 June 9/4 Some upland producers would survive through ‘niche marketing’. 1986Times 6 Sept. 19/2 The move completes the group's strategy of becoming a niche player in the new securities market after the big bang. 1988Creative Rev. Jan. 15/4 Individualism can come in the form of small ‘designer’ shops, oblique niche advertising. 1988Daily Tel. 30 Mar. 34/6 Pamela Bishop, director and promotions officer,..defines her strategy as ‘niche marketing’.
▪ II. niche, v.|nɪtʃ, niːʃ|
[f. the n., or in some senses perh. partly ad. F. nicher to nest, nestle, place as in a nest:—pop. Lat. *nīdicāre, f. nīd-us nest.]
1. trans. (in pass.) To place (an image, etc.) in a niche or similar recess. Also fig.
1757J. H. Grose Voy. E. Indies 326 Domestic idols..which are niched in a conveyance that is to serve them for a triumphal car. 1798C. Smith Yng. Philos. IV. 66 You will never be niched with―faith, I have forgotten their names. 1838Lytton Lady of L. iii. ii, No image of some marble saint, Nich'd in cathedral aisles, is hallow'd more. 1855Dickens Dorrit ii. v, A family so conspicuously niched in the social temple as the family of Dorrit. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad I. xxi. 198 A waxen Virgin niched in a little box against the wall.
b. To form as a niche. Const. into, in.
1818J. C. Hobhouse Hist. Illustr. (ed. 2) 213 Half way up an open oratory has been niched into a wall. 1820Byron Juan v. lxvi, A..cupboard niched in yonder.
2. To place in some recess or nook; to ensconce. In pass.:
a. of things or places.
1752Watson in Phil. Trans. XLVII. 456 In the litho⁓phyton, the urtica, being niched in their crusts or barks, deposits a juice or liquor. 1819Mrs. Jackson in Sir G. Jackson's Diaries & Lett. (1873) I. 131 Your fair divinity was a little earthly paradise niched somewhere in the mountains. 1862T. A. Trollope Lent. Journey iv. 57 The little solitary convent..is niched into a little, low, damp-looking meadow.
b. of persons.
1824Scott Redgauntlet let. x, They sat cosily niched into what you might call a bunker. 1847Lytton Lucretia i. ii, Niched between two bouncing lasses, he had commenced acquaintance with them. 1876M. Collins From Midnight to Midn. II. ii. 231 They got niched into a corner of the room.
3. refl. To settle or ensconce (oneself) quietly or comfortably. Also (rarely) of things.
1824J. C. Hobhouse in Athenæum (1883) 4 Aug. 145/1 A corner or two for unobtrusive folks like ourselves to nitche themselves. 1853Ruskin Stones Ven. III. ii. §39. 60 It would not niche itself, wherever there was room for it, in the street corners. 1878Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. xvi. 140 Here Dolly loved to retreat and niche herself down in a quiet corner.
4. intr. To nestle, settle. rare.
1853C. M. Yonge Heir of Redclyffe xliii, Charlotte generally niched into Amy's old corner by Charles. 1883K. S. Macquoid Her Sailor Love I. ii. vi. 115 Tufts of grass niching among the broken chalk.
Hence niched |nɪtʃt, niːʃt|, ppl. a.
1771T. Nugent tr. Life Benv. Cellini I. 450 My string of long slips, which I wanted to get about one of the nitched battlements. a1837Campbell Departure of Emigrants 92 Poet. Wks. (1837) 246 Niched statues breathing golden air. 1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps i. §7. 15 Have we no..niched statuary in our corridors? 1855Tennyson Daisy 38 Those niched shapes of noble mould. |