Pancake Tuesday. From the pancakes eaten on this day. The custom arose in Catholic days with a view to using up the eggs and lard that were interdicted during Lent; also because pancakes were an excellent stay to the appetite while the faithful had to wait long hours in church to be shrived by the priest in the confessional.
Pancras Road. From Old St Pancras parish church. New St Pancras church is situated in the Euston Road.
Panel Den. An Americanism for a brothel, in which the rooms are panelled off into small compartments.
Pan-Handle State. West Virginia, on account of its shape, rising up like a wedge between Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Panorama. Expresses the Greek for “a view of the whole,” as would be obtained from a monument or a natural eminence. This is the correct description of a picture exhibited in a circular building, where the spectators are placed in the centre; not at all of an old form of picture entertainment at one end of a hall, which approximates to a Diorama, because conformably to di, through, it is viewed through the darkness.
Pantaloon. One of the characters of the Italian comedy or “Pantomime,” so called because he was typical of the Venetians, wearing, like them, originally a close-fitting garment made all in one piece, known as a pantaleone. The Venetians were nicknamed Pantaleone (“all lion”) from their common patron, St Mark, whose symbol was a lion; hence the application of the term pantaloons to tight-fitting knickerbockers or trousers.
Pantaloonery. An Americanism for trouser material. See “[Pantaloon].”
Pantechnicon. A Greek word compounded out of pan, all, and techne, art. The large vehicle of this name was first used exclusively for the conveyance of pictures and art treasures to exhibitions.
Pantheism. From the Greek pan, all, and theos, God; the religion which recognises the Spirit of God moving throughout all the processes, works, and glories of His creation. The single doctrine expressed by Pantheism is that “God is everything, and everything is God.”
Pantheon. The Roman temple erected in honour of the gods collectively, so called from the Greek pan, all, and theos, god.