Pitbull

How to spell pitbull

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pitbull

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pitbull mean?

1. nounA muscular, short-haired type of dog bred from bulldogs and terriers, known for its strength.

Pitbull in a sentence

• The rescue centre had a friendly pitbull waiting for adoption.

• Their pitbull pulled hard on the lead during the morning walk.

Where does pitbull come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a closed-up form of the older phrase 'pit bull terrier', which named a type of dog bred in the nineteenth century from bulldogs and terriers. The 'bull' element points back to bull-baiting, a cruel public spectacle in which dogs were set on a tethered bull; the 'pit' element refers to the enclosed arena or hole, the same sense of pit that goes back to the Old English 'pytt', a hole in the ground, itself borrowed from the Latin 'puteus' meaning a well or pit. When bull-baiting was outlawed in Britain in the 1830s, the fighting moved into closed pits, and the dogs bred for it took the name. The compound crossed into general use in the United States and is now widely written as one word for the modern breed type. The spelling is straightforward once you remember it is simply 'pit' plus 'bull' joined together, with two l's at the end inherited from 'bull'.

How the word is built

• pit (a hole or enclosed arena for fighting)
• bull (from bull-baiting, a male bovine)