1582. Stanihurst, Æneid, iii. 65. Swiftlye they determind too flee from a countrye so wycked, Paltocks Inne leauing, too wrinche thee nauye too southward.
Pam, subs. (old gaming).—1. The
Knave of Clubs. [Skeat: A
contraction of Pamphillion (Fr.)
= the Knave of Clubs: see
Littre].—B.E. (c.1696); Grose
(1785); Lex. Bal. (1811).
1706. Estcourt, Fair Example, i. Scandal is the very pam in conversation.
1712. Pope, Rape, iii. 61. Ev'n mighty pam that kings o'erthrew.
1713. Guardian, 120. Play . . . engrosses the whole woman. She quickly grows . . . more fond of pam, than of her husband.
1745. Walpole, Letters (1833), ii. 74. One gets pam, the other gets pam, but . . . no conclusion of the game, till one side has never a card left.
1777. Colman, School for Scandal. Epil. That spirit-stirring drum!—odd trick—pam—basto—king and queen!
1810. Crabbe, Borough, 9, Amusements. Faint in the morn, no powers could she exert; at night with Pam delighted and alert.
2. (literary).—Lord Palmerston.
1854. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, xxxvii. I just scribbled off a line to Palmerston . . . It's very jolly to be on those terms with a man like Pam.
Pan, subs. (tramps').—1. The
workhouse: see Panny, subs. 2.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xx. Next day all us kids were sent to the pan, and she got two months' hard.
2. (old).—A bed: see Kip.—Hall (1708).
3. (Old Cant).—Money: see Rhino.—Halliwell (1847).
To pan out, verb. phr. (American).—To yield; to give a result or return: originally a mining term; 'gold dust' being put with water in a pan and shaken, when gold sinks to the bottom.
1882. McCabe, New York, 221. Altogether, my first evening among the 'lumtums' panned out well.
1888. Providence Journal. A penniless young man, with nothing to back him but a dream, had secured almost unlimited credit and a rich heiress in the bargain. Dreams don't pan out in that way, said one.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug. They got to blows, but things didn't pan out as I thought they would.
1894. To-day, 21 Ap., 317, 1. Here-upon the current of criticism takes a turn . . . 'Ought ter pan out well.'
1901. Referee, 7 Ap. 1. 1. We do not want to know about repairs to the M.C.C's big roller, or the plumbing account, or how the members' luncheon pans out as a commercial speculation.
To have a pan on, verb. phr. (printers').—To have a fit of 'the blues'; to be 'down in the dumps.'
To savor of the pan (or frying-pan), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To betray origin; to smell of the lamp (q.v.) Also (old literary) to savour of heresy: cf. Sentir le fagot, from which there would appear to be a reference to the ancient punishment for heresy.]
d.1555. Ridley [Bradford Letters, Parker Society, 1853, ii. 160]. Although there be many things that savoureth of the pan, and also he himself was afterward a Bishop of Rome, yet, I dare say, the papists would glory but a little to see such books go forth in English.
1824. Southey, Book of the Church, xi. Bishop Nix of Norwich, one of the most infamous for his activity in this persecution, used to call the persons whom he suspected of heretical opinions men savouring of the frying-pan.
See Cat, Fluff and Flash.
