- NEW!
Help answer this question below.
After pitch resin, which is very black.
The term comes from baseball in the early 1800's all
games were called when a pitcher could not throw to see
the plate,this came to be known as 'apitch black game.'
"Pitch black" or "black as pitch" refers to "a black or dark viscous substance obtained as a residue in the distillation of organic materials and especially tars." (Merriam-Webster online)
http://www.phrases.org.uk/.../1033.html
Idiom: black as night
Also, black as coal or pitch. Totally black; also, very dark. For example, The well was black as night, or She had eyes that were black as coal. These similes have survived while others--black as ink, a raven, thunder, hell, the devil, my hat, the minister's coat, the ace of spades--are seldom if ever heard today. Of the current objects of comparison, pitch may be the oldest, so used in Homer's Iliad (c. 850 b.c.), and coal is mentioned in a Saxon manuscript from a.d. 1000. John Milton used black as night in Paradise Lost (1667).
http://www.answers.com/topic/black-as-night
pitch:
Any of various thick, dark, sticky substances obtained from the distillation residue of coal tar, wood tar, or petroleum and used for waterproofing, roofing, caulking, and paving.
Any of various natural bitumens, such as mineral pitch or asphalt.
A resin derived from the sap of various coniferous trees, as the pines.
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/pitch
What idiom (common saying) do you use the most?
by Spicy Hot on May 31st, 2011
| 2 people like this
i can not stand when people call things "retarded." what are your thoughts on this?
by Latinabeauty is ...indecisive... on March 3rd, 2011
| 2 people like this
Name something that starts with the word birth?
by JM1 on September 16th, 2011
| 3 people like this
What is the meaning of the word 'GETHU' found in the TAMIL language? Could it be used to refer ONLY to one person ?
by Yogeshwaran_A on May 26th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
What word or phrase did you mishear/interpret incorrectly for longer then you would like to admit...?
by figwit on April 8th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
You're reading Why do we say "pitch black"? What does the "pitch" mean?
Comments
Here's more info on "pitch"...
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_%28resin%29
by Old School on August 23rd, 2009
Cheers; eight drops since 1930, that's a loooong experiment....
by Sid on August 23rd, 2009