niece

英 [ni?s] 美[nis]

反義詞

CET4TEM4考研CET6低頻詞常用詞匯

復數:?nieces;

niece 侄女，外甥女

來自古法語niece,侄女，孫女，來自niepce,來自拉丁語neptia,孫女，-a,表陰性，詞源同nephew.后僅用于指侄女，外甥女。

niece: niece: [13] Niece comes ultimately from *neptī-, the feminine form of Indo-European *nepōt- (source of English nephew). This passed into Latin as neptis ‘granddaughter, niece’, which in post-classical times became *neptia. Old French took it over as niece – whence English niece. *Neptī- also had a Germanic descendant, *niptiz, which now survives only in German nichte and Dutch nicht ‘niece’.
=> nephew
niece (n.): c. 1300, from Old French niece "niece, granddaughter" (12c., Modern French nièce), earlier niepce, from Latin neptia (also source of Portuguese neta, Spanish nieta), a more decidedly feminine form of neptis "granddaughter," in Late Latin "niece," fem. of nepos "grandson, nephew" (see nephew). Replaced Old English nift, from Proto-Germanic *neftiz, from the same PIE root (Old English also used broeordohter and nefene).

Until c. 1600, it also commonly meant "a granddaughter" or any remote female descendant. Cognate with Spanish nieta, Old Lithuanian nepte, Sanskrit naptih "granddaughter;" Czech net, Old Irish necht, Welsh nith, German Nichte "niece."

4. Mary left her most precious possession — a small bookcase to her niece.: 瑪麗把她最珍視的財產——一個小書架，留給了她的侄女。

5. This year all the apples are all red. My niece and nephew are going out this morning with step-ladders to pick some.: 今年所有的蘋果都紅了。我侄女和侄子今天早晨準備帶上梯子去摘一些。