Domini Lucas Jul 27, 2018:

@Asker Fair enough. Hope rest of the translation goes well. :-)

nocciola (asker) Jul 27, 2018:

I'm sorry, but I was not satisfied with "hollow" and a linguist friend of mine provided a pleasing solution. I was only looking for a translation of "creux" here. Thank you anyway for your contributions.

Domini Lucas Jul 27, 2018:

@B D Finch I totally accept that and was very much in two minds about stairwell as a possibility. Only put it in because @Asker seemed to be looking for 'a particular word',... To be honest, stairwell didn't feel right, but, also, all the spiral staircases I have seen have been tightly spiralled with no room for anything in their midst, which is why I threw stairwell in as a thought. As @Tony M said, a picture would help and, if there is a 'hollow' big enough to fit said table, his answer seems spot on to me.

B D Finch Jul 26, 2018:

@Domini No, "stairwell" would be wrong for two reasons:
1. A stairwell is a walled enclosure containing a staircase, not a hollow within a staircase;
2. A "stairwell" is a vertical space spanning two or more storeys and this table is, presumably, standing on a floor and is of normal table height. A table can be located in a stairwell but, as that implies height rather than enclosure by the staircase itself, "se lover" doesn't really fit well with that idea.

Domini Lucas Jul 23, 2018:

@nocciola - stairwell? Just wondering if "stairwell" might fit, but not putting it in as an answer as I am not 100% sure it applies in the case of a spiral staircase.

In any case, here is a descriptive French link, in case you haven't seen this one and it helps at all:
https://www.futura-sciences.com/maison/definitions/maison-es...

I quote from the link:
"il peut être à noyau creux, c'est-à-dire qu'il ne repose pas sur un pilier central mais laisse apparaître un jour en son centre"...

Linguee describes 'noyau creux' as a hollow core, but I found no context of 'stairs', but I don't know your wider context.