panzer

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Panzer (“tank; armour, coat of mail”).^[2][3][4][5] Barnhart and Etymonline take it as a shortening of Panzerdivision (“armoured unit”),^[6][7][8] while the OED explains the German sense "tank", recorded from 1934 or earlier, either as a special use of Panzer "armour" or as short for Panzerwagen (“armoured car”).^[2] The German word is from Middle High German panzier,^[7][6][3][8] recorded from the 12th century,^[2] from Old French panciere (“armour for the belly”),^[7][6][3] from pance (“belly”),^[7][6][8] from Latin pantex (“belly”),^[7][6][3] the source of paunch.^[7][6] The same French word gave the obsolete English pauncher, a piece of armour for the lower body, recorded from 1393.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A German armoured unit or a German tank: 1938, in the New York Times Magazine.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates the noun to 1938,^[3] while Barnhart and Etymonline date the adjective to 1940 and Barnhart the noun to 1943.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

English first met the German compounds as unassimilated loans: Panzerkraftwagen in 1917 in the title of a story by Captain F. Britten Austin, and Panzerdivision in 1939, slightly before the anglicized panzer division.^[2] The word became current with the German armoured divisions of the Second World War,^[9][2] and it is often used attributively, as in panzer division, and also figuratively.^[2] By extension it can mean simply heavily armoured.^[4] The OED's 1982 Supplement gave the German-style pronunciation beside the anglicized one.^[2]

Timeline

• 1917 – Panzerkraftwagen, an unassimilated German word.^[2]
• 1938 – a German armoured unit; a German tank.^[2][3]
• 1939 – Panzerdivision, still as a German word.^[2]
• 1940 – adjective, armoured, of panzer units.^[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An armoured unit of the German army, especially a panzer division of the Second World War.^[9][2][4]
2. A tank or other vehicle of such a unit.^[9][3][2]
3. panzers: armoured troops.^[9]

Adjective

1. Of, made up of or carried out by German armoured units: a panzer assault.^[3][9]
2. Heavily armoured.^[4]

Related words

• paunch
• pauncher

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins