pan

Etymology 1

From Middle English panne, from Old English panne, from Proto-West Germanic *pannā, from Proto-Germanic *pannǭ. Cognate with West Frisian panne, Saterland Frisian Ponne, Dutch pan, German Low German Panne, Pann, German Pfanne, Danish pande, Swedish panna, Icelandic panna.

noun

1. A wide, flat receptacle used around the house, especially for cooking.
2. The contents of such a receptacle.
3. A cylindrical receptacle about as tall as it is wide, with one long handle, usually made of metal, used for cooking in the home.
4. (Ireland) A deep plastic receptacle, used for washing or food preparation; a basin.
5. A wide receptacle in which gold grains are separated from gravel by washing the contents with water.
6. (geography, geology) An expanse of level land located in a depression, especially
   1. A pond or lake, considered as the expanse of land upon which the water sits.
   2. (especially South Africa) A dry lake or playa, especially a salt flat.
   3. (South Africa) Synonym of playa lake: a temporary pond or lake in a playa.
   4. Short for salt pan: a flat artificial pond used for collecting minerals from evaporated water.
7. (geology) Short for hardpan: a hard substrate such as is formed in pans.
8. (geology, obsolete South Africa) Synonym of pipe: a channel for lava within a volcano; the cylindrical remains of such channels.
9. Strong adverse criticism.
10. A loaf of bread.
11. (obsolete) The chamber pot in a close stool; (now) the base of a toilet, consisting of the bowl and its support.
12. A bedpan.
    1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure She yanks the pan out from under me & it spills all over the bed. Then she's got to change the sheets! Unreal.
13. (slang) A human face, a mug.
    "He's a foreign-looking guy with thinnish black hair and a meaty sort of pan." 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 121
    This was the kind of operator who would tell you to be there at nine sharp and if you weren't sitting quietly with a pleased smile on your pan when he floated in two hours later on a double Gibson, he would have a paroxysm of outraged executive ability […]. 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 103
14. (roofing) The bottom flat part of a roofing panel that is between the ribs of the panel.
15. A closed vessel for boiling or evaporating as part of manufacture; a vacuum pan.
16. (firearms) The part of a flintlock that holds the priming.
    flash in the pan
    […] he pull’d the Trigger, but Providence being pleas’d to preserve me for some other Purpose, the Cock snapp’d, and miss’d Fire. Whether the Prime was wet in the Pan, or by what other Miracle it was I escap’d his Fury, I cannot say […] 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, pages 95–96
    And he […] glared on the cold pistols that hung before him—ready for anything. And he took down one with a snatch and weighed it in his hand, and fell to thinking again; and, as he did, kept opening and shutting the pan with a snap, […] 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
17. The skull, considered as a vessel containing the brain; the brainpan.
18. (figurative) The brain, seen as one's intellect.
    14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Friar's Tale, Unto the devil rough and black of hue Give I thy body and my pan also."
19. (carpentry) A recess, or bed, for the leaf of a hinge.
20. (music) Short for steelpan.
    The steel band transforms the people who play in it and dance to it, and fosters links between them. […] He learned to play the pan and filled in for absent members. 2009, Pnina Werbner, Black and Ethnic Leaderships, page 122

verb

1. (transitive) To wash in a pan (of earth, sand etc. when searching for gold).
   Coordinate term: sluice
   We […] witnessed the process of cleaning up and panning out, which is the last process of separating the pure gold from the fine dirt and black sand. 1875, William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs
2. (transitive) To disparage; to belittle; to put down; to harshly criticize, especially a work (book, movie, etc.)
   Matt Damon, who compared the advent of virtual money to the development of aviation and spaceflight in a critically panned but widely seen Crypto.com ad last year, did not respond to requests to weigh in. 2022-05-17, Tiffany Hsu, “All Those Celebrities Pushing Crypto Are Not So Vocal Now”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. (intransitive, with out, to pan out) To turn out well; to be successful.
4. (transitive, informal, of a contest) To beat one's opposition convincingly.

Etymology 2

From a clipped form of panorama.

verb

1. (intransitive, of a camera, etc.) To turn horizontally.
   Later today in Finsbury Park, the cameras would spend hours panning across 35,000 festivalgoers in search of pickpockets, drunken brawlers, and other assorted agents of petty mischief. 2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-06-14
2. (intransitive, photography) To move the camera lens angle while continuing to expose the film, enabling a contiguous view and enrichment of context. In still-photography large-group portraits the film usually remains on a horizontal fixed plane as the lens and/or the film holder moves to expose the film laterally. The resulting image may extend a short distance laterally or as great as 360 degrees from the point where the film first began to be exposed.
3. (intransitive, imaging) To shift an image relative to the display window without changing the viewing scale.
4. (audio) To spread a sound signal into a new stereo or multichannel sound field, typically giving the impression that it is moving across the sound stage.

noun

1. A sequence in a film in which the camera pans over an area.
   For instance, in the film Dances with Wolves, a pan of an uninhabited landscape contrasts the gruesome beginning footage that depicts the carnage of war. 2013, Monle Lee, Carla Johnson, Principles of Advertising: A Global Perspective, page 197

Etymology 3

noun

1. Alternative form of paan

Etymology 4

Compare French pan (“skirt, lappet”), Latin pannus (“a cloth, rag”). Doublet of pagne, pane, and pannus.

verb

1. To join or fit together; to unite.
   31 May 1884, Leeds Mercury Pan it down—press an article into its proper place
   The plants can either be sold individually in the 3 inch pots as Valentine favors , or several may be panned together in larger pots 1963, Grower Talks

Etymology 5

From Old English. See pane.

noun

1. A part; a portion.
2. (fortifications) The distance comprised between the angle of the epaule and the flanked angle.
3. A leaf of gold or silver.

Etymology 6

Clipping of pansexual or panromantic.

adj

1. (informal) Pansexual or panromantic.
   When she publicly acknowledged that she is pan, it educated citizens near and far on what that sexuality meant and the importance of being proud of who you are. 28 December 2012, Anna Waugh, “Texas got a pansexual legislator”, in Dallas Voice, volume 29, number 33, page 9
   Another anonymous pansexual disclosed, "Sometimes I feel really left out because I'm pan. […] " 2013, Alejandra Rodriguez, "Isn't That Bisexual?", Outwrite, Fall 2013, page 7
   A similar experience is shared by individuals who identify their sexuality as pan, bi or queer. 2013, Megan Hertner, "Understanding Gender and Sexuality", Grapevine (Huron University College), December 2013, page 19