/ˈpænɪk/
OriginThe adjective is borrowed from Middle French panique, a word itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πανικός (panikós, “pertaining to Pan”); Pan, the Greek god of fields and woods, was believed to be the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.
Adjective sense 3 (“pertaining to or resulting from overpowering fear or fright”) is partly an attributive use of the noun.
The noun is derived from the adjective, while the verb is derived from the noun. Verb sense 1.3 (“to highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show”) is derived from noun sense 4 (“a highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show”).
- Greek, alt-of, archaicAlternative letter-case form of Panic (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).
- Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.
“All things were there in a diſordered confuſion, and in a confuſed furie, vntill ſuch time as by prayers and ſacrifices they had appeaſed the wrath of their Gods. They call it to this day, the P[a]nik”
“So long as Epaminondas was captaine general of the Thebans, there was never ſeene in his campe any of theſe ſudden fooliſh frights, without any certeine cauſe, which they call Panique Terrores.”
“But why dwell I ſo intolerable long about Tolerations, I hope my feares are but panick, againſt which I have a double cordiall.”
- Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.
“[H]e perceived how that many women followed his ſouldiers, ſome being their wives, and ſome wanting nothing to make them ſo but marriage, […] The King coming to a great river, after his men and the wa”
“No Dangers threatned, but they ſmil'd to meet
The pannick French-men trembling at their Feet.”
- Greek, archaicSynonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).
- uncountableOverwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.
“She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had co”
“There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping”
“Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet”
- abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsisEllipsis of kernel panic (“on Unix-derived operating systems: an action taken by the operating system when it cannot recover from a fatal error”); (by extension) any computer system crash.
“If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, ”
- countableA rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline.
“"I thought you inherited your money."
"I did, old sport," he said automatically, "but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war."”
“"There is sort of a panic going on, and that is not what ought to be," [Chris] Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, said at a press conference in Washington today. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were never”
- US, colloquial, countableA highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.
- countable, uncountableFoxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet.
- broadly, countable, uncountableA plant of the genus Panicum, or of similar plants of other genera (especially Echinochloa and Setaria) formerly included within Panicum; panicgrass or panic grass.
“[folio 76, recto] Panicum […] hathe no name in Engliſh yet⸝ but it may well be called panick after yͤ Latin. Panik hath leues lyke vnto a rede when it commeth firſt furth. […] [folio 76, verso] Dioſco” — Panicum […] hath no name in English yet, but it may well be called panic after the Latin. Panic hath leaves like unto a reed when it cometh first forth. […] [Pedanius] Dioscorides writeth that panic h
“There be ſundrie ſorts of Panick, although of the ancients there hathe beene ſet downe but two, that is to ſay, the wilde or fielde Panick, and the garden or manured Panick: […]”
- countable, uncountableThe edible grain obtained from one of the above plants.
“Pannick ſtoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milk and drunke twiſe in a day. Bread made of Pannick nouriſheth little, and is cold and dry, verie brittle, hau”
- transitiveTo cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily.
“He told us he'd almost stepped on Ellen's body that night—dead and stiffening. Then I'd come round the corner and hailed him, and that panicked him.”
- transitiveTo cause (a computer system) to crash.
“If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, ”
- US, colloquial, transitiveTo highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).
- intransitiveTo feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head.
“I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act.”
- intransitiveOf a computer system: to crash.
Formsmore panic(comparative) · most panic(superlative) · panick(alternative) · panics(plural) · panics(present, singular, third-person) · panicking(participle, present) · panicked(participle, past) · panicked(past) · more Panic(comparative) · most Panic(superlative) · panic(alternative)