cockpit

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cockpit/ˈkɒkpɪt/

▶noun

• 1 a compartment for the pilot and crew in an aircraft or spacecraft.

  ■ the driver's compartment in a racing car.

• 2 a place where cockfights are held.

  ■ a place of conflict.

– origin C16: from cock1 + pit1; sense 1 derives from a C18 naut. use denoting an area in the aft lower deck of a ship where the wounded were taken, later coming to mean ‘the ‘pit’ or well from which a yacht was steered’.