Home › Words › P › pannikelpannikelpannikel means the brain-pan, or skull; hence, the crest.Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pannikel ranks #16,734 of 42,752 for Qualifying.EtymologySee pan (“a dish”).nounThe brain-pan, or skull; hence, the crest.e.g.“To him he turned, and with rigor fell / Smote him so rudely on the pannikell” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).