this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

I am confused, do you think niche rhymes with bitch?

[–] BruisedMoose@piefed.social 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe it's partly regional, but growing up it was always "nitch". Like "Tom has really found his (nitch)." It only seems to have been making the transition to "neesh" in the last 10 years or so and it still sounds off to me.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

It’s originally a French word so I would guess that nitch is likely the more recent mutation.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Yeah. "Nitch" didn't show up until 1917 and got added to the Webster dictionary in 1961.

[–] Velypso@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

It is commonly pronounced both ways in the US, imo both pronunciations are correct.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

As an American if someone said "nitch" out loud I would secretly die inside and then do my best to remember this:

[–] FundMECFS@anarchist.nexus 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It would make me cringe asf but similarly I would remember policing how people use words to uphold some „purity“ of language is mostly BS and your time can be spent in much better ways.

[–] teft@piefed.social 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

policing how people use words to uphold some „purity“ of language

A lot of other languages besides english have institues dedicated to doing that exact thing. In spanish it's the Royal Spanish Academy (La Real Academia Española).

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 hours ago

I’ve never heard anybody pronounce it that way, and since we regularly tell children to “sound it out” to spell things I am going to go ahead and say no to adding letters personally.