A Panful of Pan-Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: panic-stricken

Panic-stricken means that you are frightened as if the god Pan had suddenly popped up somewhere. Especially young girls were startled by his wild behaviour.

A pantoscope is a system of glasses which allow you to see well both what is near and what is distant. In a pantomime you express everything via mime. A panacea derives from "pan" and "akomai" to cure. A panacea is a 'cure-all'.

There are many more "pan"-words in which pan is "everything". Panoramic: offering an all-round view. Pan-American. Pan-Germanic. Pantheistic. Etc.

Answer: panatela

A pannier originally was a breadbasket. Carried on the back of animal or the shoulder of a person. Later it became one of a pair of baskets hung over the rear wheel of a vehicle.

Panache derives from the Italian word 'pennacio' which means a feathered helmet. If something is done with a lot of panache, it is done with a lot of splendour and glitter as by a helmet-feather-waving knight.

Pancetta is related to "paunch", "fat belly" and is the name of a type of bacon popular in Italy.

Answer: a speech for a large audience

Panegyric derives from "pan" and a Greek word for "assembly", meaning a speech for the whole or for a large assembly.

Answer: the one who is a lion from tip to toe

A Panta-leone is an "all-lion".

Answer: Zeus

Panto-crator is simply the All-Creator. In the Byzantine Christian tradition this is the name usually given to Christ.

Answer: the Pandects

Pandect literally means: covering all. A Panoply originally meant all the weaponry that a Greek hoplite ( heavily-armed infantry) had to carry into battle. The Pantiles is a street in Royal Tunbridge Wells which is 'completely tiled' kind of an early shopping-mall.

Answer: John Milton

Do not confound a pandemonium with a panopticum. A panopticum is an altogether different sort of thing. Madame Tussaud's might qualify as one because in her wax-figure cabinet you can look around and see all sorts of things.

Answer: Dr. Pangloss

Panettone is a type of cake or cookie in Italy. Panurge is a character from Rabelais. There may be a Docteur Rieux in Albert Camus' "The Plague", but a doctor Pandieu is very unlikely. At best the French might shout something like "Par-dieu", but you better print it as "Parbleu".

Answer: True

From being full-length thick-cloth garments, pantaloons became thinner and thinner until their function was to "veil" rather than to "cover".

It is worth noting that indirectly the holy man San Pantaleone not only gave his name to a character in the Commedia dell' Arte (Pantalone), but also to the pantaloon, the pantyhose, the panty stocking, the pant dress (dress having a divided skirt), the pants (the ones which are not worn under a kilt), and in a way even to the panty-raid.

Answer: a place where you stored bread

In Italian they still speak of a panetteria for a baker's shop, and Spanish of course has panaderia.

Near Sicily there is the famous island of Pantelleria, especially famous for its sweet wine, but with no special link with pan(e) in the sense of bread.