brainpan
See also: brain-pan
English
Alternative forms
- brain-pan
- braynepan [16th c.]
Etymology
From Middle English brayn panne, from Old English bræġnpanne, corresponding to brain + pan.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbɹeɪnpan/
Noun
brainpan (plural brainpans)
- (now chiefly Canada, US, colloquial) The braincase; the skull. [from 16th c.]
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ix]:
- Many a time but for a Sallet, my braine-pan had bene cleft with a brown Bill.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Yet, whether thwart or flatly it did lyte, / The tempred steele did not into his braynepan byte.
- (now chiefly Canada, US, colloquial) The brain or mind. [from 17th c.]
- 1822, Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel:
- ‘And a hard word it is,’ said Richie, ‘as my brainpan kens to this blessed moment.’