Words with Pan prefixes

Pan derives from the Greek for `all' ; this is quite a widespread prefix.

For instance, a panacea is a cure for all :)

A pantheon is a given religion's set of all gods.

Panther literally means `all beast' :)

A panorama is the entirety of the view.

There used to be just one continent, and scientists coined the term Pangaea for it. This translates to `all the land'. (Gaea literally means `Mother Earth').

Pantropical refers to throughout the tropics.

Pan-Am used to be an airline flying into the entirety of the United States of America.

Pandora's box is literally the box of all gifts, for all that this is usually interpreted as a double-edged sword (unlike the cornucopia: horn of plenty).

A panoply is a given warrior's full set of arms and equipment, from pan hoplos. (Compare the well-known term hoplite for an Ancient Greek warrior).

Far from all words beginning with `pan' derive from the Greek for all, however. E.g. panier, pancake, pantry, and even pancreas trace back instead to `panis': the Latin for bread

What about panzer? Bread may be responsible again! Via its probable Latin derivative pantex (which survives as the English paunch). Armour protecting this part of the body was called pancier in French. And this is where the German word for armour, panzer, originates from.

With our mascot here being the panda, we point out that the pan here derives from the Nepalese `ponya', from the larger phrase `nigalya ponya', meaning `eater of bamboo' :)

Another animal name not deriving from the Greek pan is pangolin, whose pan comes rather from the Malay `peng guling', meaning roller, from the animal's habit of rolling up into a ball :)

Pants does in fact derive from the Greek pan, albeit via a rather convoluted route: from Pantaleon `all lion' to Pantalone -a Venetian comedy character' to the French pantalons meaning trousers (of which the character wore a ridiculous pair).

An anglicized version of this is pantaloons, with pants being an abbreviated form for this.

As a final example unrelated to the Greek prefix pan-, the word pansies - a type of flower - derives from the French pensees, meaning `thoughts'.