the.com/pan
a flat metal disc that turned fire into civilization, one searing edge at a time
means A broad, shallow metal container with a handle, used for cooking food over heat — or, as a verb, to criticize harshly or to swing a camera in a slow sweep.
from From Old English 'panne,' shared with Dutch 'pan' and German 'Pfanne,' all likely borrowed early from Late Latin 'panna,' a shortened form of 'patina,' a shallow dish. The harsh-criticism sense ('the critics panned it') is 19th-century slang, probably from the idea of striking or hammering something in a pan. The camera 'pan' is unrelated — it's a clipping of 'panorama,' from Greek 'pan' (all) + 'horama' (view), so it shares nothing with the cooking pan but the spelling.
- god origin
- named after Pan, the panic-inducing goat-legged Greek deity
- sound check
- steel pans are the only acoustic instrument invented in 20th century
- camera move
- a film 'pan' shares zero roots with the cookware
- gold rush
- prospectors panned dirt, exploiting density to trap heavy flakes
- harsh review
- to 'pan' something means critics flattened it
pan american highway — 49,000 km road system connecting north and south america from alaska to argentina
pan african union — african union founded 1963 with 55 member states promoting continental integration
pan pizza — pizza hut's deep-dish pizza style introduced 1989, now standard offering