Cockpit: From a Fighting Pit to the Front of an Aircraft
A cockpit is the space where a pilot or driver sits. The name has an ugly origin: it once meant the pit where cockfights were staged.
A cockpit is the compartment containing the controls of an aircraft, racing car or small boat. The name travelled a long way: from a pit for cockfighting, to a cramped space below decks where a ship's wounded were treated, to the front of an aeroplane.
- The pilot's compartment. *The cockpit voice recorder.*
- A driver's compartment. *A single-seater cockpit.*
- A well in a small boat. *The crew sat in the cockpit.*
- A place of frequent conflict (figurative). *The cockpit of Europe.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | cockpit | An open cockpit. |
| Compound | cockpit voice recorder | The cockpit voice recorder was recovered. |
| Related | flight deck | The flight deck crew. |
| Related | cabin | The passenger cabin. |
| Related | bridge | The ship's bridge. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The cockpit door is locked in flight.Standard since security rules tightened in 2001.
- Belgium was long called the cockpit of Europe.Because so many battles were fought there.
- The car has a tight but well-designed cockpit.Motoring journalism.
Cockpit or flight deck?
- Cockpit — the general and older term, used everywhere
- Flight deck — preferred on large airliners, and the official term for many operators
- Bridge — the equivalent on a ship
- Cabin — where the passengers sit, never the crew's controls
Recorded from the sixteenth century for a pit where cocks fought, then applied by sailors to a cramped compartment below the waterline. Aviation borrowed the nautical sense around 1914, and it has outlived both ancestors.
Is cockpit being replaced?
Some airlines prefer flight deck, partly for clarity and partly because the older word is not universally liked. Both remain in use.
Do small boats have a cockpit?
Yes. In sailing it is the lowered well where the helm and crew sit, an entirely separate line of the word's history.