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], Act 2, published 1652:

     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.

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Latin

Noun

(deprecated template usage) 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)