pannum

English

Alternative forms

• panem, panum, pannam, pennam

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)

1. (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

1. 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

1. dative plural of panne