pitch

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To throw a ball, especially to a batter in baseball.

   He pitched the ball hard across the plate.

2. 2
   noun

   How high or low a sound or musical note is.

   She sang the high note perfectly in pitch.

3. 3
   verb

   To aim something at a particular group or level.

   The teacher pitched the lesson at beginners.

4. 4
   noun

   How steeply something slopes.

   The roof had a very steep pitch.

From Middle English picche, piche, pich, from Old English piċ, from Proto-West Germanic *pik, from Latin pix. Cognate with Ancient Greek πίσσα (píssa, “pitch, tar”), Latin pīnus (“pine”). More at pine. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pik (“pitch, tar”), Dutch pek (“pitch, tar”), German Low German Pick (“pitch, tar”), German Pech (“pitch, tar”), Catalan pega (“pitch”), Spanish pegar (“to stick, glue”), Franco-Provençal pouatche (“sap from a pine”) and French poix (“sap”). The adjective is probably back-formed from pitch-black, reinterpreting "pitch" as meaning "intense(ly)".

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