▪ I. † ˈpanter1 Obs. (exc. Hist.)
Forms: α. 3 paniter, 3–4 -eter, 4 -yter, -ytere; β. 4– panter, (4 painter, 5 pant(t)ere, -yr).
[ME. paneter, etc., a. AF. paneter = F. panetier (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = Pr. paneter, Sp. panadero, It. panatiere, in med.L. pāna-, pānetārius, -terius, baker (cf. OF. paneter to bake bread), f. L. pān-em, It. pane, Sp. pan, bread.]
A word originally meaning ‘baker’, but in ME. usually applied to the officer of a household who supplied the bread and had charge of the pantry (an office now merged in that of butler); the controller of the bread in a large establishment.
| α 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 3868 He ȝef..þat lond of aungeo kaye is paneter [v. rr. panyter, panter]. Ibid. (Rolls) 9034, & is paniter & is chamberlein & is botiler al so. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 151 Pacience is hus paneter and payn to pouerte fyndeþ. c 1450–60 Bp. Grossetest's Househ. Stat. in Babees Bk. 330 Command the panytere with youre brede, & the botelare with wyne and ale, come to-gedur afore ȝou at the tabulle. 1496 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 305 Item, to the cuke and the panetare in Methven..xiiijs. |
| β 14.. Metr. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 624/8 Arthocopus, botelere, bakere uel panttere. c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 667 in Babees Bk. 322 Þenne comes þe pantere with loues thre. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture ibid. 66 If thou be admitted in any offyce, as Butler or Panter,—in some places they are both one. c 1530 Tindale Jonas Prol. C iv, Though all the bred be committed vn to the panter. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn Panetier, a Panter. [1851 Turner Dom. Archit. I. iv. 137 The Pantry..was superintended by the panter or pannetier.] |
▪ II. ˈpanter2 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 4 paunter, 5 pantire, -yr, 5–6 -ere, (6 panther).
[ME. a. OF. panter ‘tendicula, lacum’ (13th c. in Godef.); cf. F. pantière (Cotgr. ‘panthiere, a great swoope-net or drawing-net’) = It. pantiera ‘a kind of tramell or fowling net’ (Florio), in med.L. panthēra (Du Cange) ‘a species of net with which ducks are taken’; L. panthēra hunting-net, Gr. πανθήρα large net, f. πᾶν all + θήρ wild beast, θηρᾶν to hunt.]
A fowling net, a fowler's snare; a net, snare, trap, noose. Also fig.
| c 1325 Poem Times Edw. II 457 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 344 Pride hath in his paunter kauht the heie and the lowe. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 69 Als a fouler Tas foules wyt gylder and panter. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 200 Ydilnesse is þe develis panter. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 119 The smale foulis..That from the panter..ben skapid. ? a 1420 Lydg. Chorle & Byrde 77 This birde was trapped, & caught with a pantere. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 381/2 Pantere, snare for byrdys, laqueus, pedica. 1483 [see pantle n.]. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) II. 297 As fysshe or byrde to panter, net or snare. 1530 Palsgr. 251/2 Panther to catche byrdes with, panneau. 1652 Ashmole Theat. Chem. 215 The Byrd was trapped and cawt in a Panter. 1782 J. Elphinston Martial iii. xciii. 173 Thy panters, unpropt, are decay'd To nets of Arachne's control. 1900 E.D. Dict., Panter (N.E. Lancash.), a snare for birds made of hair. |
▪ III. panter3
(ˈpæntə(r))
[f. pant v. + -er1.]
1. One who or that which pants.
| a 1729 Congreve On Mrs. Arabella Hunt's Singing ii, Which, warbling mystic sounds, Cements the bleeding panter's wounds. 1823 Byron Juan vii. xxxix, All panters for newspaper praise. 1840 New Monthly Mag. LX. 492 Panters after posthumous reputation. |
2. slang. The heart. (Partly a pun upon ‘hart’.)
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Panter, a Hart. c 1725 Old Song in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 44 Didst thou know..but half of the smart Which has seized on my panter, since thou didst depart. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Panter, a hart, that animal is, in the psalms, said to pant after the fresh water brooks. [ed. 1796 adds] Also the human heart, which frequently pants in time of danger. |
† 3. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1706 Phillips, Panter, the Paunch or Belly; also a Sore or Gall on the Neck of Draught-Beasts. |
▪ IV. panter
obs. form of painter, panther.