What is the origin of “pan” as a slang term for “face”?












7















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?






etymology slang







share|improve this question


















  • 1





    It's interesting that you mention a meaning including the head. In the Brythonic Celtic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh), the word "pen" means head. Cornish and Welsh developed into separate languages from a common, Brythonic language that was spoken across Britain, before the arrival of English. Maybe this was the origin of pan?

    – Tristan
    Feb 8 '13 at 0:31











  • @Tristan, you may well be on to something there.

    – Brian Hooper
    Feb 8 '13 at 6:48
















7















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?






etymology slang







share|improve this question


















  • 1





    It's interesting that you mention a meaning including the head. In the Brythonic Celtic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh), the word "pen" means head. Cornish and Welsh developed into separate languages from a common, Brythonic language that was spoken across Britain, before the arrival of English. Maybe this was the origin of pan?

    – Tristan
    Feb 8 '13 at 0:31











  • @Tristan, you may well be on to something there.

    – Brian Hooper
    Feb 8 '13 at 6:48














7












7








7


0






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?






etymology slang







share|improve this question














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?






etymology slang




etymology slang






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked Aug 9 '11 at 20:41









Brian HooperBrian Hooper

29.1k45129233




29.1k45129233








  • 1





    It's interesting that you mention a meaning including the head. In the Brythonic Celtic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh), the word "pen" means head. Cornish and Welsh developed into separate languages from a common, Brythonic language that was spoken across Britain, before the arrival of English. Maybe this was the origin of pan?

    – Tristan
    Feb 8 '13 at 0:31











  • @Tristan, you may well be on to something there.

    – Brian Hooper
    Feb 8 '13 at 6:48














  • 1





    It's interesting that you mention a meaning including the head. In the Brythonic Celtic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh), the word "pen" means head. Cornish and Welsh developed into separate languages from a common, Brythonic language that was spoken across Britain, before the arrival of English. Maybe this was the origin of pan?

    – Tristan
    Feb 8 '13 at 0:31











  • @Tristan, you may well be on to something there.

    – Brian Hooper
    Feb 8 '13 at 6:48








1




1





It's interesting that you mention a meaning including the head. In the Brythonic Celtic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh), the word "pen" means head. Cornish and Welsh developed into separate languages from a common, Brythonic language that was spoken across Britain, before the arrival of English. Maybe this was the origin of pan?

– Tristan
Feb 8 '13 at 0:31





It's interesting that you mention a meaning including the head. In the Brythonic Celtic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh), the word "pen" means head. Cornish and Welsh developed into separate languages from a common, Brythonic language that was spoken across Britain, before the arrival of English. Maybe this was the origin of pan?

– Tristan
Feb 8 '13 at 0:31













@Tristan, you may well be on to something there.

– Brian Hooper
Feb 8 '13 at 6:48





@Tristan, you may well be on to something there.

– Brian Hooper
Feb 8 '13 at 6:48










3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes


















7














The book American Slang gives the following entry for pan:





  1. The face. MUG. Too great for them to keep their pans shut. (1923+)




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.






share|improve this answer
























  • It could be added to this that in the Scandinavian languages, (Icelandic+Faeroese+Swedish/Norwegian/Danish) panna/panne/pande is the normal word for ‘forehead’. This is quite obviously the same word as OE (hēafod)panne, and also as any other kind of pan—‘forehead’ and ‘frying pan’ are cognate homonyms in the Scandinavian languages (though dictionaries normally list them as seperate lemmata).

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Nov 26 '13 at 0:07



















1














I suspect it's from the Hebrew פּנים, transliterated as "panim:" — oddly, a plural —, which means "face". (If there were a singular, it would be transliterated as pan.)






share|improve this answer


























  • Do you think it is from Yiddish (the more likely source of things originally Hebrew)?

    – Mitch
    Feb 7 '13 at 18:27



















0














when panning for Gold on the side of a river when you finish the panning action and there is no gold. Hence a "Dead Pan"






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1





    Can you find and cite any supporting evidence for your assertion?

    – Jim
    7 hours ago











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3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes








3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









7














The book American Slang gives the following entry for pan:





  1. The face. MUG. Too great for them to keep their pans shut. (1923+)




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.






share|improve this answer
























  • It could be added to this that in the Scandinavian languages, (Icelandic+Faeroese+Swedish/Norwegian/Danish) panna/panne/pande is the normal word for ‘forehead’. This is quite obviously the same word as OE (hēafod)panne, and also as any other kind of pan—‘forehead’ and ‘frying pan’ are cognate homonyms in the Scandinavian languages (though dictionaries normally list them as seperate lemmata).

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Nov 26 '13 at 0:07
















7














The book American Slang gives the following entry for pan:





  1. The face. MUG. Too great for them to keep their pans shut. (1923+)




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.






share|improve this answer
























  • It could be added to this that in the Scandinavian languages, (Icelandic+Faeroese+Swedish/Norwegian/Danish) panna/panne/pande is the normal word for ‘forehead’. This is quite obviously the same word as OE (hēafod)panne, and also as any other kind of pan—‘forehead’ and ‘frying pan’ are cognate homonyms in the Scandinavian languages (though dictionaries normally list them as seperate lemmata).

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Nov 26 '13 at 0:07














7












7








7







The book American Slang gives the following entry for pan:





  1. The face. MUG. Too great for them to keep their pans shut. (1923+)




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.






share|improve this answer













The book American Slang gives the following entry for pan:





  1. The face. MUG. Too great for them to keep their pans shut. (1923+)




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.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Aug 9 '11 at 21:39









simchonasimchona

30.7k5111139




30.7k5111139













  • It could be added to this that in the Scandinavian languages, (Icelandic+Faeroese+Swedish/Norwegian/Danish) panna/panne/pande is the normal word for ‘forehead’. This is quite obviously the same word as OE (hēafod)panne, and also as any other kind of pan—‘forehead’ and ‘frying pan’ are cognate homonyms in the Scandinavian languages (though dictionaries normally list them as seperate lemmata).

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Nov 26 '13 at 0:07



















  • It could be added to this that in the Scandinavian languages, (Icelandic+Faeroese+Swedish/Norwegian/Danish) panna/panne/pande is the normal word for ‘forehead’. This is quite obviously the same word as OE (hēafod)panne, and also as any other kind of pan—‘forehead’ and ‘frying pan’ are cognate homonyms in the Scandinavian languages (though dictionaries normally list them as seperate lemmata).

    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Nov 26 '13 at 0:07

















It could be added to this that in the Scandinavian languages, (Icelandic+Faeroese+Swedish/Norwegian/Danish) panna/panne/pande is the normal word for ‘forehead’. This is quite obviously the same word as OE (hēafod)panne, and also as any other kind of pan—‘forehead’ and ‘frying pan’ are cognate homonyms in the Scandinavian languages (though dictionaries normally list them as seperate lemmata).

– Janus Bahs Jacquet
Nov 26 '13 at 0:07





It could be added to this that in the Scandinavian languages, (Icelandic+Faeroese+Swedish/Norwegian/Danish) panna/panne/pande is the normal word for ‘forehead’. This is quite obviously the same word as OE (hēafod)panne, and also as any other kind of pan—‘forehead’ and ‘frying pan’ are cognate homonyms in the Scandinavian languages (though dictionaries normally list them as seperate lemmata).

– Janus Bahs Jacquet
Nov 26 '13 at 0:07













1














I suspect it's from the Hebrew פּנים, transliterated as "panim:" — oddly, a plural —, which means "face". (If there were a singular, it would be transliterated as pan.)






share|improve this answer


























  • Do you think it is from Yiddish (the more likely source of things originally Hebrew)?

    – Mitch
    Feb 7 '13 at 18:27
















1














I suspect it's from the Hebrew פּנים, transliterated as "panim:" — oddly, a plural —, which means "face". (If there were a singular, it would be transliterated as pan.)






share|improve this answer


























  • Do you think it is from Yiddish (the more likely source of things originally Hebrew)?

    – Mitch
    Feb 7 '13 at 18:27














1












1








1







I suspect it's from the Hebrew פּנים, transliterated as "panim:" — oddly, a plural —, which means "face". (If there were a singular, it would be transliterated as pan.)






share|improve this answer















I suspect it's from the Hebrew פּנים, transliterated as "panim:" — oddly, a plural —, which means "face". (If there were a singular, it would be transliterated as pan.)







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Feb 7 '13 at 18:44









RegDwigнt♦

83.2k31281379




83.2k31281379










answered Feb 7 '13 at 18:20









Mary AnnMary Ann

111




111













  • Do you think it is from Yiddish (the more likely source of things originally Hebrew)?

    – Mitch
    Feb 7 '13 at 18:27



















  • Do you think it is from Yiddish (the more likely source of things originally Hebrew)?

    – Mitch
    Feb 7 '13 at 18:27

















Do you think it is from Yiddish (the more likely source of things originally Hebrew)?

– Mitch
Feb 7 '13 at 18:27





Do you think it is from Yiddish (the more likely source of things originally Hebrew)?

– Mitch
Feb 7 '13 at 18:27











0














when panning for Gold on the side of a river when you finish the panning action and there is no gold. Hence a "Dead Pan"






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1





    Can you find and cite any supporting evidence for your assertion?

    – Jim
    7 hours ago
















0














when panning for Gold on the side of a river when you finish the panning action and there is no gold. Hence a "Dead Pan"






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1





    Can you find and cite any supporting evidence for your assertion?

    – Jim
    7 hours ago














0












0








0







when panning for Gold on the side of a river when you finish the panning action and there is no gold. Hence a "Dead Pan"






share|improve this answer








New contributor




Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.










when panning for Gold on the side of a river when you finish the panning action and there is no gold. Hence a "Dead Pan"







share|improve this answer








New contributor




Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer






New contributor




Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









answered 7 hours ago









Andrew BAKERAndrew BAKER

1




1




New contributor




Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Andrew BAKER is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 1





    Can you find and cite any supporting evidence for your assertion?

    – Jim
    7 hours ago














  • 1





    Can you find and cite any supporting evidence for your assertion?

    – Jim
    7 hours ago








1




1





Can you find and cite any supporting evidence for your assertion?

– Jim
7 hours ago





Can you find and cite any supporting evidence for your assertion?

– Jim
7 hours ago


















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