Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
pithead

pithead

1 9.9
An area at a coal mine entrance with buildings and equipment for miners
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪtˌhɛd/
  • UK
: boca de mina
  • Workers gathered at the pithead every morning before their shifts began.

Examples

  • He had an uncle who worked in a mine office and another who operated the winch and pump engines at the New Waterford pithead.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • When Andy persuaded the gatekeeper to let him through to the pithead, he found his mother there and his father.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • - Stand by the pithead.

    The Molly Maguires (1970)

  • At the pithead, large machines were ready to lift coal from the depths of the mine.

  • She took a photograph of the entrance to the pithead, capturing the bustling activity outside the mine.

Surface Forms

pithead singular
pitheads plural

Morphology

pithead = pit + head (semi-transparent) = pit + head

Components 'pit' and 'head' are literal, but the compound denotes a specialised mining area/buildings rather than a general 'head' of a pit, making it somewhat domain-specific.

Etymology

The word pithead is made of pit ('a hole' or 'a mine') and head ('the top' or 'the end'), so it literally means the top part of a mine. That's why the pithead is the area at the mine entrance with the buildings and machines where miners gather and start work.