pit in one's stomach

[Victor Steinbok]

We should be grateful it's not "in the pith of your stomach".

http://goo.gl/nSQVU
> On the cold days there you can't beat a hot Eien Punsch - a sort of
> hot egg nogg which warms the pith of your stomach and miraculously
> heats up cold feet! Here is the recipe I was able to get.

http://goo.gl/vYiQt
> If you had burning at the pith of your stomach and now you have the
> problem you mention, this diagnosis is likely.

Prior to this, I've only seen this in the Eggcorn Database. Oddly
enough, both of these have plausible excuses. The first is a site about
Germany and might have been written by a native German. The second may
very well be talking about the soft tissues of the stomach, but confuses
the expression. No such luck for the next one:

http://goo.gl/gWdym
> The butterflies once floating in your chest will sink to the pith of
> your stomach, and it will turn, and turn, and turn, and turn until
> happiness is only a memory, a flash of a dream you once had.


VS-)

On 2/8/2012 11:48 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> 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

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