Niche [neesh] or [nitch]
What: A shallow recess in wall for a sculpture or other decorative object; a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing; a market segment.
How you pronounce it: Here’s yet another French-derived shibboleth word with that pesky “che” ending that often throws people. In this case, instead of (wrongly) going for a super-faux-French sound and saying “ni-chay,” many people super-anglicize it and say “nitch.” This had been wrong until recently, as the preferred pronunciation was the one used since the seventeenth century ― a soft, long e “neesh” like the 14-century French word meaning recess for a dog, or kennel.
But as “nitch” has become a more commonly used pronunciation, it also has become more widely accepted. It’s even become the preferred pronunciation in some dictionaries.
YOU ARE READING
Mispronounced Words
RandomLanguage is a beautiful, but complicated thing. A word can start out one way in one place, but by the time it gets spread across the world, it's become an entirely different thing. In other words, you may be mispronouncing tons of words without even...
