Talk:the pits

The following information passed a request for deletion.

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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the pits

I think this should be a redirect to pits, which could probably stand some improvement. DCDuring TALK 19:38, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

There's a few similar ones I come across from time to time starting with definite article: the man, the shit, the thing, the dickens, the landlord are some such examples to ponder. --Rising Sun talk? contributions 19:44, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

I'd do the opposite, remove the pits from pits. I remember and shit, and whatnot, and crap - and shit was nominated for deletion for sum-of-partsness and kept by consensus. Keep all. Mglovesfun (talk) 19:52, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Arbitrarily passing, agreeing with Mg and being bold. - [The]DaveRoss 22:01, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Note that this contradicts the treatment recommended today for #the regions (redirect to region/regions. Also only AHD Idioms among OneLook dictionaries treats the sense under "the pits". Most treat it as slang under pit, starting their sense line with "the pits".

Of the entries WF and MG mention:

1. The entries for those intensifiers the dickens, the fuck, the hell, the heck, the feck et al were recommended as the focus for redirects from the numerous potential entries like what the fuck, why the fuck, etc. I take my lexicographical guidance on this from the treatment of "the fuck" in The F Word.
2. the landlord is a redirect to landlord.
3. The coordinates and shit et al have distinct grammatical role, somewhat like etc. and and so forth, generally considered idiomatic and, in any event, have only a loose connection to the case at hand.

The others (the man, the shit, the thing) have no defense as special entries that comes to mind. DCDuring TALK 23:08, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

I would agree, if pits was used without "the" with the same meaning ever. As far as I know it is not used this way with that meaning. If you can find cites for a sense of pits which would make this SOP or non-idiomatic please reverse the decision. - [The]DaveRoss 23:16, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

The redirect fully addresses the search problem for someone typing in "the pits", whereas the standalone treatment prevents someone from getting any sense of the relatedness to the other senses of (deprecated template usage) pit, especially as the link in the inflection line is only to the plural. I suppose the current entry is a good location for the various conjectural etymologies connecting the term to (deprecated template usage) armpit and (deprecated template usage) pit stop, rather than "coal pits" or "saw pits". DCDuring TALK 01:02, 21 January 2011 (UTC)