pitch

Pitch, the black sticky substance, and pitch, to throw or set up, are different words.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɪtʃ/^[4]

pitch¹ tar

Etymology

The substance is inherited from Middle English pich, inherited from Old English pic,^[5][2][3] an early Germanic borrowing (compare Dutch pek and German Pech) of Latin pix (“pitch”), genitive picis,^[5][6] reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-French piche and Old French poiz.^[2] The Latin word is from Proto-Indo-European *pik- (“pitch”), the source also of Greek píssa and Lithuanian pìkis.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sticky black or dark brown resin from tar or turpentine: before 700 in the OED.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

It was a type of blackness from about 1300,^[5] and was applied, wrongly, to the sap of pine trees from the late 14th century.^[5] Pitch-black is attested from the 1590s and pitch-dark from the 1680s.^[5] The verb, to cover with pitch, is from Old English pician.^[2][3]

Timeline

• a. 700 – the resinous substance.^[7]
• c. 1000 – verb, to coat with pitch.^[2]
• c. 1300 – a type of blackness.^[5]
• 1590s – pitch-black.^[5]
• 1680s – pitch-dark.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A thick black sticky substance made from tar or petroleum, used for waterproofing and roads.
2. A natural bitumen, such as asphalt.
3. resin from certain conifers.

Verb

1. To cover or coat with pitch.

pitch² throw, set up

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English pichen, picchen (“to thrust, drive in”), past tense pighte,^[5][2][3] probably from an unrecorded Old English *piccean, perhaps related to Old English pīcung “pricking” and so to prick and pick.^[5][6][3] Its ultimate origin is unknown and the development of its senses unclear.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To thrust in or drive a stake, to pierce with a point: about 1200, senses now obsolete.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

To set up or erect, as in pitch a tent, is from about 1250, from the idea of driving pegs into the ground.^[2][5] To throw or hurl evolved by the late 14th century.^[5][2] A pitched battle is one with the forces arranged beforehand, from the sense “to set in order”.^[5] A ship's plunging is from the 1620s, and to set the key of music from the 1630s.^[5] The noun followed the verb: a slope or degree in 1542, musical pitch in 1597,^[2] and the place where the wickets are pitched in cricket in 1871.^[5] To throw a ball to the batter in baseball is from 1845,^[2] and sales talk from 1876, probably from the pitch where a trader set up a stall,^[2] while the modern sales pitch is from 1943.^[5] To pitch in is from 1847.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – to thrust in.^[5]
• c. 1250 – to set up.^[2]
• late 14th century – to throw.^[5]
• 1597 – musical pitch.^[2]
• 1620s – of a ship.^[5]
• 1845 – in baseball.^[2]
• 1871 – a cricket pitch.^[5]
• 1876 – sales talk.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To throw something with force or aim.
2. To set up a tent or camp.
3. (baseball) To throw the ball to the batter.
4. To set the level of something, such as a price or a musical note.
5. Of a ship or aircraft, to plunge up and down at the front and back.
6. To try to sell or promote something.

Noun

1. The highness or lowness of a sound.
2. (British) A field for football, cricket or other games.
3. Talk meant to persuade or sell: a sales pitch.
4. Degree or level: a high pitch of excitement.
5. A slope, especially of a roof.

Related words

• pitchfork
• pitch-black

References

1. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press