apse
noun /æps/
/æps/
- a small area in a church, often in the shape of a semicircle and usually at the east end of the building
Topics Buildingsc2(教堂东端的)半圆形壁龛 词源early 19th cent. (in the sense of an orbit of a planet): via Latin from Greek apsis, hapsis ‘arch, vault’, perhaps from haptein ‘fasten, join’.