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The pits

Posted by ESC on June 16, 2010 at 20:13

In Reply to: The pits posted by Gabrielle on June 16, 2010 at 18:34:

: Does anyone know the origin of the phrase "This is the pits?"

I was thinking pits as in the depths of despair. But two references say it is pits as in armpits. The expression is "Mainstream 1960s," according to "Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang" by Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Md., 1996), Page 119. It was first used in the late 1970s, according to Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982), Page 298.

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