From Latin for nest to an alcove in a wall to your place in the world — niche traces the journey from birdhouse to marketing strategy.
A shallow recess in a wall for a statue or ornament, or a specialized segment of a market or environment suited to a particular organism or product.
From French niche meaning recess in a wall, from Old French nichier meaning to nest, from Vulgar Latin *nidicare from Latin nidus meaning nest Key roots: *nizdo- (Proto-Indo-European: "nest").
Niche derives from the Latin word for nest — making an ecological niche literally a "nesting place" for a species. The architectural meaning came first (a little nest-shaped recess in a wall for a statue), and the ecological meaning followed in the 1920s when biologists needed a word for where an organism fits in its ecosystem.