pane

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pane, also pan,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pan, also pane, and Old French pan (“piece, section, panel; skirt of a garment”),^[5][6][7][4] from Latin pannus (“cloth, piece of cloth, rag”).^[5][6][7][2] Etymonline adds that it also came directly from Latin.^[6] In post-classical Latin from British sources pannus also meant the side of a building, and the form pana meant the side of a cloister (1373) and a pane of glass (1473).^[5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the early 12th century, for a piece of cloth, the skirt of a coat, the section of a wall and a stretch of land.^[8] The Latin noun has been compared with Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌽𐌰 (fana, “piece of cloth”), Old High German fano and Ancient Greek πῆνος (pênos, “web”),^[9][6] and with Old English fana (“flag”);^[3][6] Etymonline cites de Vaan, who thinks that if these are related they are probably borrowings from an unknown source.^[6] The OED compares paño and panno.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart and Etymonline date the word from about 1250, for a garment such as a cloak.^[10][6] The revised OED puts these early records, of fur and fur mantles, under a separate noun, from Anglo-Norman pane, penne "fur", and first records this word before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi, as a piece of cloth or a part of a garment.^[5] Hoad also cites the Cursor Mundi for the cloth sense.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Weekley notes that in Middle English, as in French, the word was used of any flat section or surface, which led to the current sense.^[11] Etymonline sees the general notion as "a distinct part or piece of a surface".^[6] From the late 14th century it was a section of a wall or fence,^[5][10][6] and about 1400, in Pearl, a side of a quadrangle or court.^[5] The window sense, a single piece of glass in a window, is found from the mid-15th century;^[6][12] Barnhart dates it to 1466.^[10] Pieces or strips of cloth sewn side by side into a curtain or garment were panes from 1459, and the slashed strips of a 16th-century garment from 1565.^[5] The cloth senses died out, except in counterpane;^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "a square of glass".^[13] In East Anglia a pane was a strip of cloth, and paned curtains were sewn from stripes of different colours.^[14] In the 20th century a pane was also a sheet or page of postage stamps, and in the late 20th century a separate area within a computer window.^[15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a garment such as a cloak.^[10][6]
• c. 1380 – a section of a wall or fence.^[5][10]
• before 1400 – a piece of cloth; a part of a garment.^[5]
• c. 1400 – a side of a quadrangle, cloister or court.^[5]
• 1405 – a bedspread.^[5]
• 1434 – a flat side of an object with several sides.^[5]
• 1459 – a strip of cloth sewn side by side with others.^[5]
• 1466 – a piece of window glass.^[10] Etymonline dates the sense to the mid-15th century.^[6]
• 1565 – plural, strips made by slashing a garment.^[5]
• 1726 – verb, to fit a window with panes.^[5]
• early 20th century – a sheet or page of stamps.^[15]
• late 20th century – a separate area within a computer window.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A single sheet of glass in a window or door, or a division of a window filled by one: A stone cracked the kitchen pane.^{[16][4][17][15]}
2. A panel of a window, door or wall.^[16][17]
3. A flat side or facet, as of a cut diamond or of the head of a bolt or nut.^[16][4][17]
4. (philately) A division of a sheet of stamps, or a single page in a stamp booklet.^[16][15]
5. (computing) A separate area within a window of a program.^[15]
6. (historical) One of several strips of cloth sewn side by side in a 16th-century garment or curtain; also, a slit in such a garment showing a contrasting lining.^[4][5]
7. (obsolete) A piece of cloth, or a part of a garment such as the skirt.^[5][15]
8. (obsolete) A section of a wall or fence.^[5][15]

Verb

1. To fit a window with panes; chiefly as paned: small-paned windows.^[15][5]

Word family

• paned
• paneless
• thermopane
• windowpane

Related words

• panel
• counterpane
• vane
• pawn

Usage notes

Pane is also a variant of peen, the pointed end of a hammer, recorded from 1826 and probably a separate alteration.^[5][4][15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin