pan

Pronunciation: /pæn/

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun cooking utensil consisting of a wide metal vessel
  2. noun (Greek mythology) god of fields and woods and shepherds and flocks; represented as a man with goat's legs and horns and ears; identified with Roman Sylvanus or Faunus
  3. noun shallow container made of metal

Etymology

From Middle English panne, from Old English panne, from Proto-West Germanic *pannā, from Proto-Germanic *pannǭ. Further origin uncertain. Alois Walde firstly suggests that it might be from Late Latin panna, from Latin patina (“broad, shallow dish, pan, stewpan”), from Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē, “kind of flat dish”), which is probably from Pre-Greek. But the sound shifting from /patina/ → /patna/ → /panna/ raises questions as -tn- to -nn- is rarely seen in Latin. The mainstream theory as of now (Friedrich Kluge, Julius Pokorny, Guus Kroonen) suggests that it is from Late Latin panna. But its sparse attestation only in the frontier inscriptions and not widespread in most Romance languages raises doubts among a few scholars (notably Michiel de Vaan), being skeptical about its origin, and open for any interpretations (Oxford English Dictionary). Vladmir Orel, in his work Albanian Etymological Dictionary, suggests that both Proto-Germanic *pannǭ and Late Latin panna could be from a non-IE Mediterranean substrate word, considering that classical Latin attestations are scarce and distributed in a specific region, and Proto-Germanic loanwords from non-IE substrates often include agricultural terms, seafaring vocabulary, or animal names. Although, this substrate hypothesis is controversial and most scholars remain skeptical about it. Cognate with West Frisian panne, Saterland Frisian Ponne, Dutch pan, German Low German Panne, Pann, German Pfanne, Danish pande, Swedish panna, Icelandic panna.

In classic literature

Synonyms

cooking pan

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms)
cooking utensil
Narrower (hyponyms)
patty-pan, roaster, saucepan, frying pan, wok, dripping pan

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