pano

Forms

pano m (plural panos)^[1] Houaiss records panno in a Latin charter of 953 and in the 15th century, pãno in the 15th century and pànho in 1813.^[2] Bluteau (1712–1728) and Folqman (1755) give both pano and panno.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pannus (“piece of cloth, patch, rag”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pano and Old Galician-Portuguese panno in the oldest texts.^{[2][5][6][1][7]} Vieira, in the 1870s, derived it from Greek instead.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician pano, Spanish paño, Catalan pany, French pan and Italian panno; it lived on in all the western Romance languages.^[9][10]

De Vaan compares Ancient Greek πῆνος (pênos, “woven cloth”) and Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌽𐌰 (fana, “cloth, towel”), with Old High German fano and *fanô: if these are related, they are probably loans from an unknown source, since the variation between a short and a long vowel and between single and double n cannot come from one Indo-European form.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 953 has the word in the form panno.^[2] In the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria it means cloth and fabric (panos de seda “silk cloths”, panos de lynno “linen cloths”, pano vermello “red cloth”) and also a garment or habit.^[7] A cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X mocks a man in a linen garment, o pano de linho, and the Cancioneiro da Ajuda has panos de doo “mourning clothes”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the word for cloth in general, for garments and for a religious habit.^[13][7] Bluteau describes how cloth merchants graded woollen cloth by the number of threads (pano dozeno, dezocheno, vinteno and so on).^[3] Morais in 1789 adds pano do muro “a stretch of wall”, the painter's canvas, and a blow with the flat of a sword.^[14]

Like Spanish paño, the word came to mean a sail, and in the plural the sails of a ship.^[9][2] Later senses include the stage curtain (pano de boca), skin blotches (pityriasis versicolor), and the many cloths of the household (pano de pó, pano de prato, pano de chão).^[2][15] In north-eastern Brazil it also names the banner of a carnival group.^[16]

Timeline

• 953 – a Latin charter writes panno.^[2]
• 13th century – first Portuguese records;^[2][5][7] panos de seda and panos de lynno in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][5][7]
• 14th century – first record of panal.^[5]
• 1416 – the word in the Vida de Santo Aleixo Confessor.^[17]
• 16th century – first records of empanar and panete.^[5]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses pano with Latin pannus.^[18]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists the grades of woollen cloth.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais records pano do muro and pano de pintor.^[14]
• 1813 – the spelling pànho.^[2]
• 1844 – first records of espanar and espanador (1836 in the addenda).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. cloth, any woven fabric: Comprei dois metros de pano para as cortinas.^[2][19][1]
2. Each of the widths of cloth sewn together to make a garment or other piece: um vestido de seis panos.^[2][20]
3. By extension, each of the pieces of cloth, plastic, wood and so on joined side by side to form a whole.^[2]
4. A piece of cloth for household use, a rag or duster: pano de pó, pano de prato, pano de chão.^[2][20][1]
5. A face or side of something that has more than one;^[2][21] (building) a stretch of wall, lanço.^[2][21]
6. (nautical) A sail; the sails of a ship.^[2][15][22]
7. (theatre) The stage curtain.^[21][2]
8. (informal, medicine) A blotch on the skin, as in pityriasis versicolor or in pregnancy.^[2][23]
9. (north-eastern Brazil) The banner of a carnival group.^[16]

Word family

• desempanar
• empanar
• empanamento
• espanar
• espanador
• panal
• panete
• pano de boca
• pano de chão

Related words

• Latin pannus
• Galician pano
• Spanish paño

Usage notes

Common phrases include por baixo dos panos “secretly, under the counter”, a todo o pano “at full speed” and dar pano para mangas “to give plenty to talk about”.^[1][22]

Houaiss, the DLP, Aurélio and Michaelis also record a separate pano, from the ethnonym Panos: a member of the Pano peoples of western Amazonia and Peru, their language family, and the adjective relating to them.^{[2][19][24][23]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pano
3. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pano
4. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pano
5. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pano
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pano
7. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. pano
8. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 646
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6204
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 380
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. pannus
13. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. pano
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 153
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6861
16. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. pano
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pano
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pano
19. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. pano
20. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. pano
21. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pano
22. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. pano
23. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. pano
24. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pano