English → Latin
“pit” in Latin
foveapit, hole in the ground; snare, pitfallcaveahollow, cavity; cage, den, enclosure, stall, coop, beehive, birdcage; the seats in a theater, amphitheater, or auditoriufossaa ditch, trench, moat, fosse; a gutter, waterway; a furrow drawn to mark foundationsstruōto place one thing on top of another, to pile up, join together; to compose, construct, build; to ready, prepare, devisepōnōto place; to put; to lay; to ordain; to appoint; to make (something); to set up; to pitch (camp)scrobisditch, trench; grave
The English word pit itself goes back to Latin puteus.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
pit s.
fovea (general term): scrobs (opened for a short time, to be filled up again): cavea (in a theatre; ☞ in ancient theatres this denoted the whole of the space allotted to the spectators): to dig a pit, facere foveam (fossam); fodere scrobem: to dig a pit for anybody (figuratively), insidias alicui parare, or struere, or ponere; perniciem alicui moliri; aliquem decipere fovea (Plaut., Poen., 1, 1, 59): to fall into a pit, in foveam delabi, decidere (PROP.); in foveam incidere (PROP. and figuratively; Vid: Cic., Phil., 4, 5, 12); in insidias incidere (figuratively): he that digs a pit for another falls into it himself, qui alteri exitium parat, eum scire oportet sibi paratam pestem (Poeta ap. Cic., Tusc., 2, 17, 39); compedes quas ipse fecit, ipse gestabit faber (Auson., Idyll. 7, in fine epistolary dedications).
pit v.
To dig a pit, facere foveam, scrobem.
To store in a pit (e.g., to pit potatoes), in terram infodere; *in scrobem or scrobiculum infodere.
To mark with holes; e.g., pitted with the small-pox, *cicatricibus variolarum insignis (of the face).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for pit?
- The usual Latin words for “pit” are fovea, cavea, fossa; also struō, pōnō, scrobis. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.