pan

pan¹

—panner, n.

/pan/, n., v., panned, panning.

n.

1. a broad, shallow container of metal, usually having sides flaring outward toward the top, used in various forms for frying, baking, washing, etc.

2. any similar receptacle or part, as the scales of a balance.

3. the amount a pan holds or can hold; panful: a pan of shelled peas.

4. any of various open or closed containers used in industrial or mechanical processes.

5. a container in which silver ores are ground and amalgamated.

6. a container in which gold or other heavy, valuable metals are separated from gravel or other substances by agitation with water.

7. a drifting piece of flat, thin ice, as formed on a shore or bay.

8. a natural depression in the ground, as one containing water, mud, or mineral salts.

9. a similar depression made artificially, as for evaporating salt water to make salt.

10. (in old guns) the depressed part of the lock, holding the priming.

11. Also, panning. an unfavorable review, critique, or appraisal: The show got one rave and three pans.

12. Slang. the face.

v.t.

13. Informal. to criticize severely, as in a review of a play.

14. to wash (gravel, sand, etc.) in a pan to separate gold or other heavy valuable metal.

15. to cook (oysters, clams, etc.) in a pan.

v.i.

16. to wash gravel, sand, etc., in a pan in seeking gold or the like.

17. to yield gold or the like, as gravel washed in a pan.

18. pan out, Informal. to turn out, esp. successfully: The couple's reconciliation just didn't pan out.

[bef. 900; ME, OE panne; c. D pan, G Pfanne, ON panna]

pan²

/pahn/, n.

1. the leaf of the betel.

2. a substance, esp. betel nut or a betel-nut mixture, used for chewing.

[1610-20; < Hindi pan; cf. Pali, Prakrit panna, Skt parna leaf, betel leaf]

pan³

/pan/, v., panned, panning, n.

v.i.

1. to photograph or televise while rotating a camera on its vertical or horizontal axis in order to keep a moving person or object in view or allow the film to record a panorama: to pan from one end of the playing field to the other during the opening of the football game.

2. (of a camera) to be moved or manipulated in such a manner: The cameras panned occasionally during the scene.

v.t.

3. to move (a camera) in such a manner: to pan the camera across the scene.

4. to photograph or televise (a scene, moving character, etc.) by panning the camera.

n.

5. the act of panning a camera.

6. Also called panning shot. the filmed shot resulting from this.

[1920-25; shortening of PANORAMA]

pan⁴

/pan/, n.

1. a major vertical division of a wall.

2. a nogged panel of half-timber construction.

[1735-45; < F, MF: PANE]

pan⁵

/pahn/, n. Informal.

panguingue.

[by shortening]

pan⁶

/pan/, n.

Pan.

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I

Greek fertility deity with a half-human, half-animal form.

The Romans associated him with Faunus. Pan was usually said to be the son of Hermes. He was often represented as a vigorous and lustful figure with the horns, legs, and ears of a goat; in later art his human parts were more emphasized. Some Christian depictions of the Devil bear a striking resemblance to Pan. Pan haunted the high hills, where he was chiefly concerned with flocks and herds. Like a shepherd, Pan was a piper, and he rested at noon. He could inspire irrational terror in humans, and the word panic comes from his name.

II

(as used in expressions)

Pan p'o

Pan American Sports Games

Pan American World Airways Inc.

Pan Am

Pan Gu

Pan African movement

Pan American Highway

Pan American Union

Pan Arabism

Pan Germanism

Pan Slavism

Pan Turkism

Tin Pan Alley

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▪ Greek god

      in Greek mythology, a fertility deity, more or less bestial in form. He was associated by the Romans with Faunus. Originally an Arcadian deity, his name is a Doric contraction of paon (“pasturer”) but was commonly supposed in antiquity to be connected with pan (“all”). His father was usually said to be Hermes, but a comic invention held that he was the product of an orgy of Odysseus's wife Penelope with her many suitors. Plutarch wrote that during the reign of Tiberius the crew of a ship sailing near Greece heard a voice calling out “The great Pan is dead.” Christians took this episode to be simultaneous with the death of Christ.

      Pan was generally represented as a vigorous and lustful figure having the horns, legs, and ears of a goat; in later art the human parts of his form were much more emphasized. He haunted the high hills, and his chief concern was with flocks and herds, not with agriculture; hence he can make humans, like cattle, stampede in “panic” terror. Like a shepherd, he was a piper and he rested at noon. Pan was insignificant in literature, aside from Hellenistic bucolic, but he was a very common subject in ancient art. His rough figure was antithetical to, for example, that of Apollo, who represented culture and sophistication.

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