armpit

Etymology

It is formed from Middle English arm + pit.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Arm is from Old English earm,^[4] and pit is from pytt, from Proto-Germanic *putt- (“pool, puddle”), an early borrowing from Latin puteus (“well, pit, shaft”).^[4] The OED compares the slightly earlier armhole, which Etymonline dates to the early 14th century in this sense, obsolete by the 18th.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The hollow under the arm: before 1333, as armput in a glossary to Walter de Bibbesworth's treatise on French, glossing Anglo-Norman essuyl (another manuscript has armole, armhole).^[2][7] The 1989 edition of the OED dated it before 1400.^[8] Etymonline gives the mid-14th century and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 14th century.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Another Middle English word for the armpit was asselle, from Old French asselle, from Latin axilla.^[4] From before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, the word was used of the corresponding part of an animal; the Middle English Dictionary has the hollow under a bear's foreleg.^[2][7] Holland's Pliny (1601) applied it to the angle between a leaf or branch and the stem, a rare sense.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the hollow place under the shoulder".^[9] The phrase up to one's armpits, deeply involved, is recorded from 1869.^[2] The colloquial sense "the dirtiest or most disgusting part of a place", originally American, dates from 1957 in the OED;^[2] Etymonline finds armpit of the nation for an ugly place by 1965,^[4] and Green's Dictionary of Slang explains it by the link between the armpit and dirt and smell, with an American quotation of 1969 for Las Cruces, New Mexico.^[10] American college slang also used it from 1968 for an unpleasant person.^[11][10]

Timeline

• before 1333 – the hollow under the arm.^[2][7]
• before 1398 – the corresponding part in an animal.^[2][7]
• 1601 – the angle between a leaf or branch and the stem (rare).^[2]
• 1869 – up to one's armpits, deeply involved.^[2]
• 1957 – the dirtiest or most disgusting part of a place.^[2] Etymonline dates armpit of the nation to 1965.^[4]
• 1968 – an unpleasant or obnoxious person, in American college slang.^[11][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hollow under the arm where it joins the shoulder; the axilla.^[3][12][2]
2. (informal) The most unpleasant, dirty or run-down place of its kind: the armpit of the nation.^{[3][12][2][10]}
3. up to one's armpits: deeply involved in something.^[2]
4. (US slang) An unpleasant or obnoxious person.^[10][11]

Related words

• arm
• pit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin