"barbecue pit"

[Mark Mandel]

The second sentence of the appended article reads: "An argument over
whether a third guest should stay in the house got so heated that the
woman picked up the barbecue pit and hit the man over the head with
it, police said." The friend who sent it to me wrote:

-----
 File under, "You keep using that word...I do not think it means what
you think it means."  I saw the headline, and I wondered how you could
do that.
-----

So did I. To me, a pit is a basically a hole in the ground, possibly
lined with bricks and fitted with assorted useful accessories for
cooking, but still a hole.

But this term seems to have been lexicalized, e.g.,

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/bbqgrill.pdf [from the Cooperative
Extension Service of Mississippi State University]:
MULTIPLE-SECTION PORTABLE BARBECUE PIT
Barbecuing chickens for large groups is fairly easy when a
multiple-section portable barbecue pit is used. It is prefabricated in
sections, permitting fast and easy assembly and disassembly. The unit
is easily transported and stored. Any number of eight-foot long
sections can be interconnected, depending on the number of chickens to
be barbecued.

And the readers commenting on the website of the local newspaper that
originated the story
(http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080807/NEWS01/808070337
, "Serving Alexandria, Pineville, and Central Louisiana") don't seem
to find anything unusual in the usage.

================

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080807/D92DOO2O1.html

Two arrested after using barbecue pit as a weapon
Aug 7, 7:54 PM (ET)

ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) - A man and a woman found a new use for a
barbecue pit - one that landed them in jail. An argument over whether
a third guest should stay in the house got so heated that the woman
picked up the barbecue pit and hit the man over the head with it,
police said.

The man picked up the barbecue pit and returned the favor and hit the
woman in the head with it, police reported. The woman then told police
that she picked up the barbecue pit and hit the back window of the
man's car with it.

Police admit that the whole situation was confusing, but after medics
treated the man and the woman, they were handcuffed, read their rights
and taken to jail.

The man was booked on a charge of aggravated battery and the woman was
booked with aggravated battery and simple criminal damage to property
valued less than $500.

==============


--
Mark Mandel

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