pit, noun

/pɪt//pət/
Plurals:
pits, ‖pitte/ˈpətə/.
Origin:
Afrikaans, U.S. English, British EnglishShow more Afrikaans, pith, kernel, pip. Cf. U.S. English, and British English dialect.
The stone of a stone-fruit; a pip; occasionally, an edible seed, especially a pine-nut (see dennebol). Cf. pip sense 1.
1913 A. Glossop Barnes’s S. Afr. Hsehold Guide 185Every apricot must be halved and the stone removed; the ‘pits’ (as the farming community call them here) being excellent fattening and hardening-up food for pigs.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 375Pit,..This word is in common use in South Africa as a name for the stones of fruit. It is used with the same meaning in New York, and is a remnant there of the old Dutch occupation.
1919 M.M. Steyn Diary 32When he asked, ‘Who has been throwing orange pips about here?’ we burst out laughing (fancy calling those things ‘pips’, we had always called them ‘pitte’). To us it seemed sheer affectation to call them anything else.
c1929 S. Black in S. Gray Three Plays (1984) 93Van K: Will it do if I suck a peach-pit?..Haywhotte: Yes, but don’t swallow it.
1969 Argus 13 Dec.‘Pit,’ according to the English dictionary, is a ‘fruit stone.’ It is also the Afrikaans word for ‘pip.’ This was a South African short story and the use of the word ‘pit’ lent an added South African flavour to it.
1977 Pickstone’s Catal. 9The fruit (sc. peach) is yellow to reddish yellow, the flesh is deep orange coloured right through to the pit.
The stone of a stone-fruit; a pip; occasionally, an edible seed, especially a pine-nut (see dennebol).
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Afrikaans
pisgras, nounn.pitso, nounn.
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