Where Did the Term “Cockpit” Come From and Where Did the Word for Flightdeck Originate?

When the hideous sport of cockfighting was legal, the birds were taken to a pit in the ground where they fought to the death.

These fights were quick and bloody, and for this reason, the “cockpit” became the designated name of the room on a warship were surgeons attended the wounded and dying.

During the First World War, pilots, like the roosters, were inserted into a confined space to do battle, and so they named that space the cockpit.