pannum
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Possibly from Italian pane (“bread”) or directly from Latin pānem, the accusative of pānis (“bread, loaf”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to feed, to graze”).
Noun
pannum (uncountable)
- (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) Bread; food.
- 1641–42, Richard Brome, A Joviall Crew, or, The Merry Beggars[1], published 1652, act 2:
- Here's Pannum and Lap, and good Poplars of Yarrum, / To fill up the Crib, and to comfort the Quarron.
- 1844, Charles Selby, London by Night, act 1, scene 2:
- As far as injun, pannum, and cheese, and a drop of heavy goes, you are perfectly welcome.
- c. 1864, Alfred Peck Stevens, “The Chickaleary Cove”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris[2], published 1896, page 161:
- I have a rorty gal, also a knowing pal, / And merrily together we jog on, / I doesn't care a flatch, as long as I've a tach, / Some pannum for my chest, and a tog on.
Derived terms
- pannum-bound (“said of a pauper or prisoner when his food is stopped”), pannum-fence (“street pastry cook”), pannum-struck (“starving”)
References
- Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors (1889–1890) “pannum”, in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant […], volume II (L–Z), Edinburgh: […] The Ballantyne Press, →OCLC, page 114.
- John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1902) “pannum”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume V, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, page 134.
Latin
Noun
pannum
- accusative singular of pannus
References
- "pannum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Old English
Noun
pannum
- dative plural of panne