alcove

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, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, OCLC 57198313, 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.

Translations

small recessed area

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Armenian: խորշ (hy) (xorš), անկողնախորշ (hy) (ankołnaxorš) Bulgarian: ни́ша f (níša) Chinese: Mandarin: 壁龕／壁龛 (zh) (bìkān) 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, 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) 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 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