pit in one's stomach

[Ben Zimmer]

Thomas Friedman in today's Times:

---
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/opinion/friedman-freedom-at-4-below.html
To observe the democratic awakenings happening in places like Egypt,
Syria and Russia is to travel with a glow in your heart and a pit in
your stomach.
[...]
But that pit in the stomach comes from knowing that while the protests
are propelled by deep aspirations for dignity, justice and
self-determination, such heroic emotions have to compete with other
less noble impulses and embedded interests in these societies.
---

A commenter cites Paul Brians' _Common Errors in English Usage_

---
http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/pit.html
Just as you can love someone from the bottom of your heart, you can
also experience a sensation of dread in the pit (bottom) of your
stomach. I don’t know whether people who mangle this common expression
into “pit in my stomach” envision an ulcer, an irritating peach pit
they’ve swallowed or are thinking of the pyloric sphincter; but
they’ve got it wrong.
---

Jan Freeman wrote about it in a 2008 Globe column, noting the shift
from "a feeling in the pit of your stomach" to  "a pit (you feel) in
your stomach":

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/04/27/gut_check/

I'm reminded a bit of the idiom blend "eat at your craw," combining
"eat at you" and "stick in your craw":

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1104C&L=ADS-L&P=R10765

Neither pits nor craws are easy to place these days.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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