Chapter Pangloss to Panurge of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Pantagruelion Herb (The). Hemp; so called “because Pantagruel was the inventor of a certain use which it serves for, exceeding hateful to felons, unto whom it is more hurtful than strangle-weed to flax.”

“The figure and shape of the leaves are not much different from those of the ash-tree or the agrimony, the herb itself being so like the Eupatorio that many herbalists have called it the `Domestic Eupatorio,' and the Eupatorio the `Wild Pantagruelion.”'- Rabelais: Pantagruel, iii. 49.

Pantaloon A feeble-minded old man, the foil of the clown, whom he aids and abets in all his knavery. The word is derived from the dress he used to wear, a loose suit down to the heels.

“That Licentio that comes a-wooing is my man Tranio bearing my port, that we might beguile the old pantaloon.”- Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, iii. 1.

   Pantaloon. Lord Byron says the Venetians were called the Planters of the Lion- i.e. the Lion of St. Mark, the standard of the republic; and further tells us that the character of “pantaloon,” being Venetian, was called Piantaleone (Planter of the Lion). (Childe Harold, bk. iv. stanza 14, note 9.)
   Playing Pantaloon. Playing second fiddle, being the cat's-paw of another; servilely imitating.

Pantechnicon A place where all sorts of manufactured articles are exposed for sale; a storehouse for furniture.

Panthe'a wife of Abradatus, King of Susa. Abradatus joined the Assyrians against Cyrus, and his wife was taken captive. Cyrus refused to visit her, that he might not be tempted by her beauty to outstep the bounds of modesty. Abradatus was so charmed by this continence that he joined the party of Cyrus, and, being slain in battle, his wife put an end to her life, and fell on the body of her husband.

“Here stands Lady Rachel Russell- there the arch-virago old Bess of Hardwicke. The one is our English version of Panthea of Arria; the other of Xantippe in a coif and peaked stomacher.”- Mrs. Lynn Linton: Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1891, p. 606.

Panthe'a (Greek). Statues carrying symbols of several deities, as in the medal of Antoninus Pius, where Serapis is represented by a modius, Apollo by rays, Jupiter Ammon by ram's horns, Pluto by a large beard, and AEsculapius by a wand, around which a serpent is twined.

Pantheon The finest is that erected in Rome by Agrippa (son-in-law of Augustus). It is circular, 150 feet in diameter, and the same in height. It is now a church, with statues of heathen gods, and is called the Rotunda. In Paris the Pantheon was the church of St. Geneviève, built by Louis XV., finished 1790. Next year the Convention called it the Pantheon, and set it apart as the shrine of those Frenchmen whom their country wished to honour (“aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante”). (Greek, pantes theoi, all the gods.)

Panther The Spotted Panther in Dryden's Hind and Panther means the Church of England full of the spots of error; whereas the Church of Rome is faultless as the milk-white hind.

“The panther, sure the noblest next the hind,
And fairest creature of the spotted kind,
Ah, could her inborn stains be washed away,
She were too good to be a beast of prey.”
Part 1.

Panthera A hypothetical beast which lived in the East. Reynard affirmed that he had sent her majesty the queen a comb made of panthera bone, “more lustrous than the rainbow, more odoriferous than any perfume, a charm against every ill, and a universal panacea.” (H. von Alkmar: Reynard the Fox.) (1498.)
   She wears a comb made of panthera bone. She is all perfection. (See above.)

Pantile Shop A meeting-house, from the fact that dissenting chapels were often roofed with pantiles. Hence pantile was used in the sense of dissenting. Mrs. Centlivre, in the Gortiam Election, contrasts the pantile crew with a good churchman.