Other forms: pits
A pit is a deep hole in the ground, or a coal mine. Fall into a pit, down the pit, the pit closed.
In Britain the pit means a coal mine specifically, and pit village and pit head belong to that. In motor racing the pits are where cars stop for fuel and tyres. In American English a pit is also a fruit stone. Note that the Latin puteus means a well.
1nounpitA deep hole in the ground, or a coal mine.
“The workers dug a deep pit for the foundations.”
2nounareaThe area where racing cars stop for fuel and tyres.
“The driver came into the pits to change his tyres with ten laps to go.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
pit is a hole, or a mine.
Old English pytt comes from Latin puteus, a well or trench, though the sound change is not straightforward.
Old English
pytt
Middle English
pit
English, today
pit
From Middle English pit, from Old English pytt. From Middle English pit, pet, put, from Old English pytt, from Proto-West Germanic puti, from Latin puteus (“trench, pit, well”), although there are phonetic difficulties.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA