RTFM

What is a pit ?

In this context the small very hard seed found inside some fruits, like olives or cherries.

It's what posh people like Turnip who like to mention they own dishwashers and eat olives, call the stone.

michael adams

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I have less income now than the minimum wage by a huge margin. So I use my time to save money. I cook, do DIY, sew, mend, repair and in general live the way my postwar parents taught me, and their Depression era parents taught them. On a shoestring."

The Natural Philosopher

Its a spellchecked Pipp. Brian

Are you unfamiliar with the terms pitted or unpitted when referring to olives?

In article , michael adams writes

Oh come on. Not just Waitrose sell Pitted Prunes, Pitted Cherries, Pitted Olives etc.

Turnip's olives were *unpitted*, obviously.

Otherwise he wouldn't have had to remove the pit that got stuck in his dishwasher, would he ? Do try and keep up !

As it happens I just happened to be reading about Cyril Connolly. And one of many of his less endearing habits, was of reading while eating and leaving olive pits and sardine bones (sic) inside the pages of the (often other people's) books he was reading.

michael adams

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I was thinking that there must be an awful lot of posh people around.

Mr Adams is just a wannabee snob - he can't even get the business of being a snob right.

You mean because large numbers of people have dishwashers?

It is an Americanism that has crept in over the last few decades. We (English people) used to call it a pip or a stone depending on how big/hard it was.

I even had to look up RTFM

my mother used the term and she died over 50 years ago.

a lot of people have a pit on each shoulder today...

Before Elizabeth David came along, the only people who ate olives in the UK were Italian and Spanish immigrants and people who'd travelled in Europe. Olives have always grown well in poor well drained soils and were a part of their staple diet; not because they tasted nice but because they were easy to grow and thus cheap to produce. They used to come in big tins from Spain by the lorryload maybe still do ending up stacked up in the back rooms of delicatessens. They've never tasted any better than they did before although people like to pretend that they do and so that while incredibly cheap to produce they've never made into Macdonalds or KFC . Although maybe on the odd pizza where the taste can be disguised with artificial cheese and tomato puree.

michael adams

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As demonstrated by Waitroses astonishing sales of single 'carrots' at the self service tills.

I bet you really had to pit your brains to come up with that ...

He has. The "s" is silent in his case.