forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com

WW1 Aircraft Modeling => WW1 Aircraft Information/Questions => Topic started by: GHE on October 13, 2012, 06:24:59 AM

Title: Cockpit - where does this picture come from
Post by: GHE on October 13, 2012, 06:24:59 AM

Messieurs !

I always wondered about the English expression cock- pit !
A pit is somthing of a hole ( in an automobile repair shop or quarry) and the cock is clear.
How did this 'picture' evolve ?


Gunther

Title: Re: Cockpit - where does this picture come from
Post by: uncletony on October 13, 2012, 06:30:07 AM

http://hotforwords.com/2008/03/12/cockpit/

Title: Re: Cockpit - where does this picture come from
Post by: Des on October 13, 2012, 06:36:55 AM

The term described the sailing term for the coxswain's station in a Royal Navy ship, and later the location of the ship's rudder controls. Cockpit appeared in the English language in the 1580s, "a pit for fighting cocks," from cock + pit. Used in nautical sense (1706) for midshipmen's compartment below decks; transferred to airplanes (1914) and to cars (1930s). From about 1935 cockpit came to be used informally to refer to the driver's seat of a car, especially a high performance one, and this is official terminology in Formula One.

Taken from Wikipedia.

Des.

Title: Re: Cockpit - where does this picture come from
Post by: GHE on October 15, 2012, 08:42:06 PM

Thank you very much for the kind help, meine Herren !

Gunther