Daily Archives: Saturday, January 19, 2013

It snowed in Bristol yesterday, as it did over a large part of the UK. No more than 2-3 inches of the frozen white stuff caused complete chaos with bus services withdrawn, schools closed and similar over-reactions. A friend called me yesterday afternoon: he works in Geneva and told me that several times that amount – nearly 2 feet in fact – fell there on Tuesday afternoon and life continued as normal.

When snow settles in the Bristol area, it does something unique that’s not repeated elsewhere in the country or in the English-speaking world (to the best of my knowledge. Ed.): it pitches. When it’s snowing, Bristolians have been known to confuse people from elsewhere simply by asking, “Is it pitching?”

Chambers 21st Century Dictionary defines the verb to pitch as follows:

pitch verb (pitches, pitched, pitching) 1 to set up (a tent or camp). 2 to throw or fling. 3 tr & intr to fall or make someone or something fall heavily forward. 4 intrans said of a ship: to plunge and lift alternately at bow and stern. 5 tr & intr said of a roof: to slope • is pitched at a steep angle. 6 to give a particular musical pitch to (one’s voice or a note) in singing or playing, or to set (a song, etc.) at a higher or lower level within a possible range • The tune is pitched too high for me. 7 to choose a level, e.g. of difficulty, sophistication, etc. at which to present (a talk, etc.) • was pitched too low for this audience. 8 a cricket to bowl (the ball) so that it lands where the batsman can hit it; b golf to hit (the ball) high and gently, so that it stays where it is on landing; c tr & intr, baseball said of the pitcher (sense 1): to throw the ball overarm or underarm to the person batting. 9 to pave (a road) with stones set on end or on edge.

Out of these possible definitions, from whence could this bit of Bristolian dialect come? Sense 9 above, i.e. paving in the sense of covering something over, seems a strong possibility.

In addition, users of the WordReference Forum have also discussed what snow does when it settles, including pitching in Bristol. In this thread, one user, Loob, suggests that Bristol’s pitching could have originated from Somerset since Somerset dialect for to lie is to pitch.

Pitch itself comes from the 13th century Middle English verb picchen, meaning to throw or put up.

One final point: whatever snow does where you are – pitch, settle,lie or anything else – don’t forget to let your inner child enjoy it!