pantry

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pantrie, also panetrie,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman panetrie, also panterie,^[4][5][6][7] a variant of Old French paneterie (“storeroom for bread”), recorded from 1292,^[4][8] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin panataria (“office or room of the servant in charge of bread”).^[5][6] The French word is formed from the stem of panetier (“servant in charge of bread”) and -erie.^[4][7][9] Ayto and Hoad take panetier from Medieval Latin pānetārius, an alteration of Late Latin pānārius (“bread-seller”),^[9][10] which is from Latin pānis (“bread”),^[9][5][11] from Proto-Indo-European *pā- (“to feed, protect”).^[5][11][3] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the early 13th century, already meant both a bakery and a set of rooms where bread and other provisions were kept.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A room or set of rooms in a large household where bread and other provisions were kept: before 1325, in the glossary to Walter de Bibbesworth's treatise.^[4] Barnhart finds it as a surname, Paneterie, in 1275,^[6] and the OED cites Thom. de la Panetrie from 1278, though it is unclear whether this is English or Anglo-Norman.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Etymologically a pantry is a bread room, but the link with bread was soon lost and the word came to mean any room or closet for provisions,^[9][5] and later also a room for storing china, silver and table linen.^[4][5] Weekley compares the similar widening of larder.^[12] From about 1475 it was used figuratively for a store of knowledge or spiritual goods,^[4] a ship's food store from 1840,^[4] and since 1948 it has appeared in the names of tea rooms and cafés.^[4][7] In Australian and American slang it meant the stomach, from 1845.^[13] A verb pantry, to store up, appears in 1637 in Samuel Rutherford's letters,^[4] and the English Dialect Dictionary records it as obsolete Scots.^[14]

Timeline

• 1275 – Paneterie, as a surname.^[6]
• before 1325 – a storeroom for bread and other provisions.^[4][6]
• c. 1475 – figuratively, a store of knowledge or spiritual goods.^[4]
• 1637 – verb, to store up (obsolete).^[4][14]
• 1840 – a ship's food store.^[4]
• 1845 – in slang, the stomach.^[13]
• 1948 – Pantry, in the names of tea rooms and cafés.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small room or cupboard where food, cooking utensils or dishes are kept; a larder: They kept jars of jam on the pantry shelves.^[15][2][4]
2. A room in a hotel, hospital or ship where cold food is prepared or provisions are kept.^[2][4]
3. (slang) The stomach.^[13]

Verb

1. (obsolete) To store up.^[4][14]

Word family

• pantryman

Related words

• pannier
• pantler
• companion
• company
• food

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c 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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins