What does the term pan mean

What does the term pan mean

Pan- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “all.” It is often used in a variety of scientific and technical terms, particularly in pathology.

Pan- comes from the Greek pâs, meaning “all.” The term pancreas, a gland in the stomach, is ultimately related to this same Greek root. So do panacea and many other words English gets from Greek. The equivalent form derived from Latin is omni-, as in omnivore, which comes from Latin omnis, “all.”

What are variants of pan-?

Pan- is a variant of panto-. Another variant of pan- is pant-, as in pantalgia. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles on pant- and panto-.

Examples of pan-

One example of a term you may have encountered that features the combining form pan- is pantheon, meaning “the gods of a particular mythology considered collectively.”

The pan- part of the word means “all,” while the -theon part of the word here means “god.” Pantheon has a literal sense of “all gods.”

What are some words that use the combining form pan-?

What are some other forms that pan- may be commonly confused with?

Not every word that begins with the exact letters pan-, such as pancake or panda, is necessarily using the combining form pan- to denote “all.” Learn where the word panda comes from at our entry for the word.

Break it down!

The combining form -gram means “something written.” With this in mind, how many letters of the alphabet are used in a sentence known as a pangram?

What is the origin of «pan» as a slang term for «face»?

I was think of posting a picture of my ugly pan here instead of the gravatar, when I started to wonder, why is it my ugly pan? The slang term pan meaning face occurs chiefly in phrases such as ugly pan and smack in the pan, suggesting that is not very complimentary.

Green’s Dictionary of Slang has several different meanings including the female pudenda, the mouth, the head and the anus but suggests no etymology.

Does anyone have any idea where the term came from?

2 Answers 2

The book American Slang gives the following entry for pan:

This seems to be when pan first entered American slang. From there, it went on to form words like deadpan (recorded in 1927). Only one site gave a hint to the actual origins, though. In this question about the origins of «deadpan», it is written that:

The key to «deadpan» is the use of «pan» as theatrical slang for «the face» (reflecting the use of «pan» to mean «skull,» found as early as 1330).

Going off of this, there seems to be some support. The Word Origins page for skull says:

The Old English word for ‘skull’ was hēafodpanne, literally ‘head-pan’. It has never been firmly established where its Middle English replacement skull came from, but is seems more than likely that it was borrowed from a Scandinavian language (Swedish and Norwegian have skalle ‘skull’).

So the old word for skull gave pan, which was adopted to mean face. From there, pan entered American slang in the early 1920s.

What does PAN stand for?

What does PAN mean? This page is about the various possible meanings of the acronym, abbreviation, shorthand or slang term: PAN.

Pesticide Action Network

Personal Area Network

Partido de Acción Nacional

Personal Area Networking

Private Area Network

Partido de Avanzada Nacional

Project Ars Nova

Planetary Art Network

Pan A Newsreader

Post Authorization Notification

Priority Application Number

Phosphoric Acetic Nitric

Property Account Number

Percussion Actuated Nonelectric

CorelDraw Printer-specific file

Pattuglia Acrobatica Nationale

Programming Assignment N

Pagans Acting Nicely

Permanent Account No

Philadelphia Area Nudists

What does PAN mean?

Popularity rank for the PAN initials by frequency of use:

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What does PAN stand for?

What does PAN mean? This page is about the various possible meanings of the acronym, abbreviation, shorthand or slang term: PAN.

Pesticide Action Network

Personal Area Network

Partido de Acción Nacional

Personal Area Networking

Private Area Network

Partido de Avanzada Nacional

Project Ars Nova

Planetary Art Network

Pan A Newsreader

Post Authorization Notification

Priority Application Number

Phosphoric Acetic Nitric

Property Account Number

Percussion Actuated Nonelectric

CorelDraw Printer-specific file

Pattuglia Acrobatica Nationale

Programming Assignment N

Pagans Acting Nicely

Permanent Account No

Philadelphia Area Nudists

What does PAN mean?

Popularity rank for the PAN initials by frequency of use:

Couldn’t find the full form or full meaning of PAN?

Maybe you were looking for one of these abbreviations:

Discuss these PAN abbreviations with the community:

Report Comment

We’re doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we’ll take care of it shortly.

What does PAN stand for?

Your abbreviation search returned 58 meanings

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Note: We have 250 other definitions for PAN in our Acronym Attic