pandybat

English

Etymology

Seems to have been used in Ireland for much of the 20th century. Since James Joyce cites it in the context of a Catholic school in his novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, it may have been a pun on the Latin word pendebat, but was more probably derived from the Latin words pande manum, meaning "hold out your hand".

Noun

pandybat (plural pandybats)

1. A stout leather strap reinforced internally with whalebone or even lead and used to inflict punishment, especially by striking the palms of schoolboys.
   • 1916 December 29, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC:

     The soutane sleeve swished again as the pandybat was lifted and a loud crashing sound and a fierce maddening tingling burning pain made his hand shrink together […]