Coalpits

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Underground workings or open shafts from which coal is extracted by miners, often a long-established site in a mining region
2. Deep excavations in the earth where workers dig out coal, historically common across industrial mining districts
3. Mines dug into the ground to remove coal, the places where colliers labour to bring the mineral to the surface

Etymology: "Coalpits" is simply the plural of "coalpit," so its story is the story of its two halves: "coal" and "pit." The compound goes back to Old English "colpytt," a combination of "col," the word for charcoal or coal, and "pytt," meaning a pit or hole in the ground. Both elements were already part of the language's native vocabulary long before anyone was digging for fuel, so the word needed no borrowing from elsewhere. The name describes exactly what it refers to: a hole dug into the earth from which coal is taken. Over the Middle English period the spelling shifted to "colpit," and the compound kept its literal, physical sense of a pit for coal. The plural simply adds the usual "-s" to mean several such mines.

Synonyms: colliery, mine